Employee Benefit Plans

We sponsor various noncontributory defined benefit pension plans covering substantially all full-time employees that began employment prior to June 30, 2008. Benefits earned by employees are generally based upon employee compensation and years of service credits. We also have a non-qualified Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan ("SERP"). Effective June 30, 2009, we froze the accrual of benefits under our defined benefit pension plans and our SERP that cover the majority of our employees.

We sponsor a defined contribution plan covering substantially all non-union and certain union employees. We match a portion of employees' voluntary contributions to this plan. In connection with freezing the accrual of service credits under certain of our defined benefit pension plans, we began contributing additional amounts (referred to as transition credits) to certain employees' defined contribution retirement accounts in 2011. These transition credits, which will be made through the end of 2015, are determined based upon the employee’s age, compensation and years of service.

Other union-represented employees are covered by defined benefit pension plans jointly sponsored by us and the union, or by union-sponsored multi-employer plans.

The components of the expense consisted of the following:



	Three Months Ended September 30,						Nine Months Ended September 30,
(in thousands)	2015			2014			2015			2014

Service cost	$	—		$	21		$	—		$	64
Interest cost	8,169			6,600			22,797			19,155
Expected return on plan assets, net of expenses	(6,625		)	(5,893		)	(18,334		)	(17,611		)
Amortization of actuarial loss	1,179			862			3,515			2,145
Curtailment	—			—			1,080			—
Total for defined benefit plans	2,723			1,590			9,058			3,753
Multi-employer plans	43			100			140			324
Withdrawal from GCIU multi-employer plan	—			—			—			4,100
SERP	253			80			800			672
Defined contribution plans	2,094			2,419			7,805			8,635
Net periodic benefit cost	5,113			4,189			17,803			17,484
Allocated to discontinued operations	—			(1,178		)	(1,096		)	(7,819		)
Net periodic benefit cost — continuing operations	$	5,113		$	3,011		$	16,707		$	9,665

We contributed $0.3 million to fund current benefit payments for our SERP during the nine months ended September 30, 2015. We anticipate contributing an additional $0.5 million to fund the SERP’s benefit payments during the remainder of 2015. No contributions were made to our defined benefit pension plans during the first nine months of 2015. A one-time curtailment charge of $1.1 million was recorded in the second quarter of 2015 related to our defined benefit pension plan as a result of the impact of the spin-off of our Newspaper business. We also remeasured the pension liabilities as a result of the newspaper spin-off on April 1, 2015.

On August 24, 2015, we offered eligible former employees with vested, deferred pension plan benefits the option of receiving their benefits either as a lump-sum distribution or an immediate annuity payment. Approximately 4,300 former Scripps employees were eligible for this offer; former Journal Communications employees were not affected. Company funds will not be used to make the lump-sum distributions. All distributions will be made from existing pension plan assets. The company expects the funded status of the plan to remain materially unchanged as a result of this offer. Eligible participants had until October 13, 2015 to make an election. The lump-sum payments are expected to be made in November 2015. After distribution of the lump-sum amounts, we will record a non-cash pension settlement charge in the fourth quarter of approximately $45 million, based on the estimated rate of acceptance.

We participate in multi-employer pension plans that cover certain employees that are members of unions or trade associations that have a collective bargaining agreement with us. In 2014, unions ratified our plan to withdraw from the Graphics Communication International Union (GCIU) Employer Retirement Fund. Upon ratification of the agreement, we estimated the undiscounted liability to be approximately $6.5 million and recorded a liability of $4.1 million in 2014 for the present value withdrawal liability. Once we reach a final agreement with the GCIU, we either will pay the liability in a lump sum or make equal monthly installments over 20 years.