Facility consolidation and asset impairment charges

9 Months Ended

Sep. 28, 2014

Restructuring and Related Activities [Abstract]

Facility consolidation and asset impairment charges

Facility consolidation and asset impairment charges

Throughout the year we evaluated the carrying values of property, plant and equipment at certain publishing businesses as a result of our ongoing facility consolidation efforts. We revised the useful lives of certain assets to reflect the use of those assets over a shortened period as a result. Certain assets classified as held-for-sale according to Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) Topic 360 resulted in us recognizing non-cash charges in both 2014 and 2013 as we reduced the carrying values to equal the fair value less cost to dispose. The fair values were based on the estimated prices of similar assets.

We recorded non-cash impairment charges to reduce the book value of goodwill and other intangible assets. We are required to test goodwill and other indefinite lived assets for impairment annually.  Our annual measurement date for testing is the first day of the fourth quarter.  However, because of softening business conditions at two of our smaller Publishing Segment reporting units, we updated our evaluations as of the beginning of the second quarter of 2014. Our testing indicated that the implied $6.2 million fair value of the goodwill was less than the recorded value.  As a result, we recognized a $15.3 million pre-tax charge to reduce the carrying value of goodwill to the implied fair value.

We recorded pre-tax charges for facility consolidations and asset impairments of $6.6 million in the third quarter and $50.2 million for the year-to-date period in 2014. For 2013, we recorded $5.9 million pre-tax charges for the third quarter and $15.2 million for the year-to-date period. We recorded a $1.0 million non-operating pre-tax charge in the second quarter of 2014 to write off certain broadcasting assets that were donated then and a $0.9 million non-operating pre-tax charge in the first quarter of 2013 to write off certain publishing assets.