Pension and Other Retirement Plans

6 Months Ended

Jun. 30, 2011

Pension and Other Retirement Plans [Abstract]

Pension and Other Retirement Plans

Note 5: Pension and Other Retirement Plans

     On October 6, 2010, the Company and Belo Corp. entered into the Transfer Agreement whereby the Company and Belo agreed to split the assets and liabilities of the GBD Pension Plan, allowing the Company to establish separate pension plans and serve as sponsor of these plans. On January 1, 2011, the Company established the A. H. Belo Pension Plans I and II (collectively the “A. H. Belo Pension Plans”) which account for the transferred assets and obligations associated with current and former employees of the Company that participated in the GBD Pension Plan. A. H. Belo Pension Plan I provides benefits to certain employees primarily employed with The Dallas Morning News or the
A. H. Belo corporate offices. A. H. Belo Pension Plan II provides benefits to certain employees at The Providence Journal. In the second quarter of 2011, the Company and Belo completed the allocation of the GBD Pension Plan assets and liabilities outstanding as of December 31, 2010. The A. H. Belo Pension Plans were allocated $238,327 of plan assets and $363,928 of projected benefit obligations. The net unfunded obligation, in addition to $8,733 of contributions the Company was required to make to the GBD Pension Plan as a result of the Transfer Agreement, resulted in a loss on withdrawal from the GBD Pension Plan of $134,334. The Company recognized $132,346 of this loss in the fourth quarter of 2010 based on preliminary actuarial estimates, and the remaining $1,988 loss was recognized in the second quarter of 2011. No additional benefits are accruing under the A. H. Belo Pension Plans, as future benefits were frozen prior to the plans’ effective date. In January 2011, the A. H. Belo Pension Plans received $215,235 of the estimated assets to be transferred from the GBD Pension Plan and the remaining $23,092 was received in the second quarter of 2011.

     During January 2011, the Company contributed $8,733 to the GBD Pension Plan to settle required contributions associated with the Transfer Agreement, of which $3,410 of this payment came from A. H. Belo funds held by Belo for future pension contributions. In the first quarter of 2011, the Company made a discretionary contribution of $30,000 to the A. H. Belo Pension Plans, directly reducing the unfunded projected pension obligation of the A. H. Belo Pension Plans. A required contribution of $5,896 was made in the second quarter of 2011. The minimum required contributions for the remainder of 2011 are estimated to be $10,409, which were made on July 15, 2011.

     The Company has estimated net periodic pension expense for 2011 based on the plan assets and estimated projected pension obligations assumed by the A. H. Belo Pension Plans. The Company assumes a 6.5 percent long-term return on the plans’ assets. Investment strategies for plans’ assets are based upon factors such as the remaining useful life expectancy of participants and market risks. In 2011, the Company expects between 60 to 70 percent of the plans’ assets to be invested in equity securities and the remaining 30 to 40 percent to be invested in fixed income securities. Projected benefit obligations for the plans are estimated based on the Citigroup Pension Yield Curve, which produced a composite discount rate of 5.3 percent. Components of net periodic pension expense for the three and six months ended June 30, 2011 were as follows:

	Three Months			Six Months
	Ended			Ended
	June 30, 2011			June 30, 2011
Interest costs	$	4,675		$	9,350
Return on plan assets (estimated)		(4,175	)		(8,350	)
Net expense	$	500		$	1,000

     In 2010, Company employees participated in the GBD Pension Plan, and the Company accounted for its pension obligations under the accounting guidance established for multiemployer plans. Pension expense recorded for the three and six months ended June 30, 2010 was $4,200 and $8,272, respectively.

     Other Defined Contribution Plans. In the second quarter of 2011, the Company announced that it would provide a match of employee
401(k) contributions up to 1.5 percent of base salary occurring in the first two quarters of 2011. No match was provided in 2010. For the three and six months ended June 30, 2011, the Company recorded $435 and $856, respectively, of expense associated with its 401(k) plan.

     Expense associated with the A. H. Belo Pension Transition Supplement Plan and the A. H. Belo Pension Transition Supplement Restoration Plan (collectively the “Pension Transition Plans”), was $1,141 and $1,278 for the three months ended June 30, 2011 and 2010, respectively and $2,327 and $2,557 for the six months ended June 30, 2011 and 2010, respectively.