Retirement plans

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2021

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 September 30, 2021, were $74.2 million, of which $7.8 million is recorded as a current obligation within accrued liabilities on the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheet.

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

	Quarter ended Sept. 30,				Nine months ended Sept. 30,
	2021		2020		2021		2020
Service cost-benefits earned during the period	$	1	$	1	$	2	$	5
Interest cost on benefit obligation	3,969		4,868		11,907		14,605
Expected return on plan assets	(8,670)		(7,765)		(26,010)		(23,294)
Amortization of prior service cost	23		23		68		68
Amortization of actuarial loss	1,223		1,541		3,669		4,622
Pension payment timing related charge	946		—		946		—
Income from company-sponsored retirement plans	$	(2,508)	$	(1,332)	$	(9,418)	$	(3,994)

Benefits no longer accrue for substantially all TRP and SERP participants as a result of amendments to the plans in 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 nine months ended September 30, 2021 and 2020, we did not make any cash contributions to the TRP. We made benefit payments to participants of the SERP of $5.3 million and $4.1 million during the nine months ended September 30, 2021 and 2020, respectively. Based on actuarial projections and funding levels, we do not expect to make any cash payments to the TRP in 2021 (as none are required based on our current funding levels). We expect to make additional cash payments of $1.6 million to our SERP participants during the remainder of 2021.

In the third quarter of 2021, we accelerated the recognition of previously deferred pension costs as a result of lump sum payments made for the SERP, which resulted in a $0.9 million charge which was reclassified from accumulated other comprehensive loss into net periodic benefit cost.