PENSION AND OTHER POSTRETIREMENT BENEFITS

Pension

Single-Employer Plans

We sponsor several single-employer defined benefit pension plans, the majority of which have been frozen; and participate in joint Company and Guild-sponsored plans covering employees of The New York Times Newspaper Guild, including The New York Times Newspaper Guild pension plan, which has been frozen, and a new defined benefit pension plan, subject to the approval of the Internal Revenue Service. The components of net periodic pension cost/(income) were as follows:



	For the Quarters Ended
	March 30, 2014								March 31, 2013
(In thousands)	Qualified Plans			Non- Qualified Plans		All Plans			Qualified Plans			Non- Qualified Plans		All Plans
Service cost	$	2,386		$	1	$	2,387		$	2,323		$	256	$	2,579
Interest cost	21,112			2,875		23,987			19,284			2,643		21,927
Expected return on plan assets	(28,460		)	—		(28,460		)	(31,063		)	—		(31,063		)
Amortization of prior service credit	(486		)	—		(486		)	(486		)	—		(486		)
Amortization of actuarial loss	6,598			1,054		7,652			8,442			1,312		9,754
Net periodic pension cost/(income)	$	1,150		$	3,930	$	5,080		$	(1,500	)	$	4,211	$	2,711

In the first quarter of 2014, we made pension contributions of approximately $4 million to certain qualified pension plans. Including the first quarter of contributions, we expect to make total contributions of approximately $16 million in 2014 to our qualified pension plans to satisfy minimum funding requirements.

Other Postretirement Benefits

The components of net periodic postretirement benefit cost/(income) were as follows:



	For the Quarters Ended
(In thousands)	March 30, 2014			March 31, 2013
Service cost	$	147		$	285
Interest cost	1,010			1,009
Amortization of prior service credit	(1,600		)	(3,693		)
Amortization of actuarial loss	1,184			1,022
Net periodic postretirement benefit cost/(income)	$	741		$	(1,377	)

Recent Developments

Recently, the Society of Actuaries released proposed mortality tables, which update life expectancy assumptions. Final updates to the mortality tables are expected to be issued by the end of 2014. Based on this expected data, it is likely we would revise the mortality assumptions used in determining our pension and postretirement benefit obligations as of December 28, 2014. We expect the adoption of new mortality assumptions for purposes of funding our plans will likely trail the adoption for accounting purposes. New mortality assumptions, when fully implemented for accounting and plan funding, will likely result in an increase of approximately $150 million in pension and postretirement liabilities and approximately $10 million in annual pension and postretirement expense and may result in higher pension funding requirements in future periods depending upon the funded status of our pension plans. These expectations presume all other assumptions remain constant and there are no changes to applicable funding regulations.