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Employee Benefit Plans
 6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2016
Compensation and Retirement Disclosure [Abstract]  
Employee Benefit Plans
Employee Benefit Plans

We sponsor two noncontributory defined benefit pension plans covering certain Scripps employees that began employment prior to June 30, 2008, as well as certain former Journal Communications, Inc. ("Journal") employees. We also have two non-qualified Supplemental Executive Retirement Plans ("SERPs") covering Scripps employees and certain former Journal employees. Both of the defined benefit plans and the SERPs have frozen the accrual of future benefits.

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 were determined based upon the employee’s age, compensation and years of service, ended in 2015.

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 
 June 30,
 
Six Months Ended 
 June 30,
(in thousands)
 
2016
 
2015
 
2016
 
2015
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Interest cost
 
$
6,770

 
$
8,179

 
$
13,540

 
$
14,628

Expected return on plan assets, net of expenses
 
(4,599
)
 
(6,624
)
 
(9,196
)
 
(11,709
)
Amortization of actuarial loss
 
997

 
1,204

 
1,995

 
2,336

Curtailment
 
—

 
1,080

 
—

 
1,080

Total for defined benefit plans
 
3,168

 
3,839


6,339


6,335

Multi-employer plans
 
42

 
38

 
85

 
97

SERP
 
281

 
281

 
560

 
547

Defined contribution plans
 
2,086

 
2,360

 
4,274

 
5,711

Net periodic benefit cost
 
5,577

 
6,518

 
11,258

 
12,690

Allocated to discontinued operations
 
—

 
—

 
—

 
(1,096
)
Net periodic benefit cost — continuing operations
 
$
5,577


$
6,518


$
11,258


$
11,594



We contributed $0.5 million to fund current benefit payments for our SERPs and $1.2 million to our defined benefit pension plans during the six months ended June 30, 2016. We anticipate contributing an additional $0.6 million to fund the SERP’s benefit payments during the remainder of 2016. Additionally, we expect to contribute $5 million to $10 million for our qualified defined benefit pension plans in 2016.