Pension and Other Postretirement Benefits

3 Months Ended

Mar. 26, 2017

Compensation and Retirement Disclosure [Abstract]

Pension and Other Postretirement Benefits

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. We also participate in two joint Company and Guild-sponsored defined benefit pension plans covering employees who are members of The NewsGuild of New York, including The Newspaper Guild of New York - The New York Times Pension Fund, which was frozen in 2012 and replaced by a successor plan, The Guild-Times Adjustable Pension Plan.

The components of net periodic pension cost were as follows:



	For the Quarters Ended
	March 26, 2017								March 27, 2016
(In thousands)	Qualified Plans			Non- Qualified Plans		All Plans			Qualified Plans			Non- Qualified Plans		All Plans
Service cost	$	2,423		$	—	$	2,423		$	2,247		$	—	$	2,247
Interest cost	15,594			1,956		17,550			16,574			2,034		18,608
Expected return on plan assets	(26,136		)	—		(26,136		)	(27,790		)	—		(27,790		)
Amortization of actuarial loss	7,353			1,088		8,441			7,069			1,053		8,122
Amortization of prior service credit	(486		)	—		(486		)	(486		)	—		(486		)
Net periodic pension (income)/cost	$	(1,252	)	$	3,044	$	1,792		$	(2,386	)	$	3,087	$	701

During the first quarters of 2017 and 2016, we made pension contributions of $2.0 million and $2.1 million, respectively, to certain qualified pension plans. We expect contributions to total approximately $8 million to satisfy funding requirements in 2017.