Retirement plans

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2023

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 total net pension obligations, including both current and non-current liabilities, as of September 30, 2023, were $78.8 million, of which $5.6 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 TEGNA Supplemental Retirement Plan (SERP), are presented in the following table (in thousands):

	Quarter ended Sept. 30,				Nine months ended Sept. 30,
	2023		2022		2023		2022
Interest cost on benefit obligation	$	6,133	$	4,270	$	18,399	$	12,811
Expected return on plan assets	(5,235)		(4,876)		(15,705)		(14,627)
Amortization of prior service credit	(116)		(119)		(348)		(361)
Amortization of actuarial loss	1,504		1,150		4,513		3,452
Expense from company-sponsored retirement plans	$	2,286	$	425	$	6,859	$	1,275

Benefits no longer accrue for TRP and SERP participants as a result of amendments to the plans in past years, and as such we no longer incur a 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, 2023 and 2022, we did not make any cash contributions to the TRP. We made benefit payments to participants of the SERP of $2.8 million during the nine month periods ended September 30, 2023 and $2.9 million in 2022. Based on actuarial projections and funding levels, we do not expect to make any cash payments to the TRP in 2023. We expect to make additional cash payments of $2.1 million to our SERP participants during the remainder of 2023.