Kurt Wimmer named Gannett senior vice president, general counsel

Wimmer will become a member of the Gannett Management Committee,the company's advisory group of top executives.

Wimmer has been a partner of Covington & Burling since 1995, andwas managing partner at the firm's London office from 2000 to 2003.His work has dealt with content liability and newsgathering advice andlitigation; television and Internet programming transactions; U.S. andinternational laws relating to the Internet; and public policy,including work with the Federal Communications Commission.

"Kurt Wimmer is simply a perfect fit with Gannett. A formerjournalist turned lawyer, his remarkable record representingtelevision, print and new media companies - as well as his experiencesin London and in the area of intellectual property law - dovetailswith Gannett's needs," said Craig A. Dubow, chairman, president andCEO of Gannett. "Kurt is the right person at the right time as weimplement our strategic plan to enhance our core assets while growingour digital business."

Wimmer is listed in "Best Lawyers in America" in four areas:administrative law, communications law, First Amendment and media law.He is president of the Media Law Resource Center's Defense CounselSection. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the MediaInstitute and is chair of the group's First Amendment AdvisoryCouncil. His clients have included top media companies in the UnitedStates and the Ministries of Communications of Israel and Sweden. Hehas advised journalists and others in 18 countries in Central andEastern Europe and in Central Asia.

He has worked as a copy editor, photojournalist and a reporter. Hereceived a Bachelor of Journalism from the University ofMissouri-Columbia School of Journalism; a J.D. from SyracuseUniversity College of Law and a Master's in Communications Policy fromthe Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse. He is thefirst lawyer to receive the Joseph A. Sprague Award from the NationalPress Photographers Association.

He replaces Thomas L. Chapple, who has retired.

Gannett Co., Inc. is a leading international news and informationcompany that publishes 90 daily newspapers in the USA, including USATODAY, the nation's largest-selling daily newspaper. The company alsoowns nearly 1,000 non-daily publications in the USA and USA WEEKEND, aweekly newspaper magazine. Gannett subsidiary Newsquest is the UnitedKingdom's second largest regional newspaper company. Newsquestpublishes more than 300 titles, including 17 daily newspapers, and anetwork of prize-winning Web sites. Gannett also operates 22television stations in the United States and is an Internet leaderwith sites sponsored by its TV stations and newspapers includingUSATODAY.com, one of the most popular news sites on the Web.