Retirement plans

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2020

Retirement Benefits [Abstract]

Retirement plans

Retirement plans

We have various defined benefit retirement plans. Our principal defined benefit pension plan is the TEGNA Retirement Plan (TRP). The disclosure table below includes the pension expenses of the TRP and the TEGNA Supplemental Retirement Plan (SERP). The total net pension obligations, including both current and non-current liabilities, as of June 30, 2020, were $124.9 million, of which $6.8 million is recorded as a current obligation within accrued liabilities on the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheet.

Pension costs, which primarily include costs for the qualified TRP and the non-qualified SERP, are presented in the following table (in thousands):

	Quarter ended June 30,						Six months ended June 30,
	2020			2019			2020			2019
Service cost-benefits earned during the period	$	2		$	—		$	4		$	—
Interest cost on benefit obligation	4,879			5,773			9,737			11,523
Expected return on plan assets	(7,779		)	(6,585		)	(15,529		)	(13,160		)
Amortization of prior service cost	87			20			45			45
Amortization of actuarial loss	1,481			1,541			3,081			3,041
Pension payment timing related charge	—			686			—			686
(Gains from) expense for company-sponsored retirement plans	$	(1,330	)	$	1,435		$	(2,662	)	$	2,135

Benefits no longer accrue for substantially all TRP and SERP participants as a result of amendments to the plans in the past years and as such we no longer incur a significant amount of the service cost component of pension expense. All other components of our pension expense presented above are included within the “Other non-operating items, net” line item of the Consolidated Statements of Income.

During the six months ended June 30, 2020 we made no cash contributions to the TRP, and made $0.9 million during the six months ended June 30, 2019. We made benefit payments to participants of the SERP of $3.2 million and $5.0 million, during six months ended June 30, 2020 and 2019, respectively. Based on actuarial projections and funding levels, we do not expect to make any cash payments to the TRP in 2020. We expect to make additional cash contributions of $2.7 million to our SERP participants in 2020.