NOTE 3: CHANGES IN OPERATIONS AND NON-OPERATING ITEMS

Employee Reductions—The Company recorded pretax charges, mainly consisting of employee severance costs, associated termination benefits and related expenses totaling $7 million, $5 million and $10 million in 2018, 2017 and 2016, respectively. These charges are included in direct operating expenses or SG&A in the Company’s Consolidated Statements of Operations.

The following table summarizes these severance and related charges included in income from continuing operations by business segment (in thousands):



	2018			2017		2016
Television and Entertainment	$	7,155		$	4,367	$	9,228
Corporate and Other	(398		)	372		1,178
Total	$	6,757		$	4,739	$	10,406

The accrued liability for severance and related expenses is reflected in employee compensation and benefits in the Company’s Consolidated Balance Sheets and was $7 million and $5 million at December 31, 2018 and December 31, 2017, respectively.

Changes to the accrued liability for severance and related expenses were as follows (in thousands):



Balance at December 31, 2016	$	8,981
Additions	4,739
Payments	(9,144		)
Balance at December 31, 2017	$	4,576
Additions	6,757
Payments	(4,721		)
Balance at December 31, 2018	$	6,612

Non-Operating Items—Non-operating items were as follows (in thousands):



	2018			2017			2016
Loss on extinguishments and modification of debt	$	—		$	(20,487	)	$	—
(Loss) gain on investment transactions, net	(1,113		)	8,131			—
Write-downs of investments	—			(193,494		)	—
Other non-operating gain, net	68			71			5,427
Total non-operating (loss) gain, net	$	(1,045	)	$	(205,779	)	$	5,427

Non-operating items for 2018 included a pretax loss of $5 million from the sale of the Company’s remaining ownership interest in CareerBuilder, LLC (through its investment in Camaro Parent, LLC) (“CareerBuilder”) and a pretax gain of $4 million from the sale of one of the Company’s other equity investments.

Non-operating items for 2017 included a $20 million pretax loss on the extinguishments and modification of debt. The loss included a write-off of unamortized debt issuance costs of $7 million and an unamortized discount of $2 million as a portion of the Term Loan Facility was considered extinguished for accounting purposes as well as an expense of $12 million of third party fees as a portion of the Term Loan Facility was considered a modification transaction under ASC 470, “Debt.” (Loss) gain on investment transactions, net included a pretax gain of $5 million from the sale of the Company’s Tribune Publishing Company (“Tribune Publishing”) (formerly tronc, Inc.) shares and a pretax gain of $4 million from the partial sale of CareerBuilder. Write-downs of investments included non-cash pretax impairment charges of $193 million to write down the Company’s investments in CareerBuilder, Dose Media, LLC (“Dose Media”) and one of the Company’s other equity investments, as further described in Note 6.

Non-operating items in 2016 included a $5 million non-cash favorable workers’ compensation reserve adjustment related to businesses divested by the Company in prior years.