NYT Pension Gap: Echoes of Entitlement
Like many old-line companies, the New York Times has long supplied healthy pensions to its valued workers. Now those obligations are part of the weight carried forward — still another weight not shared by journalistic start-ups. In an SEC filing, the Times estimates that its underfunded status is $420 million, ballooned as all such deficits have been by the stock market crash, though things clearly are better than they were six months ago. This year, it will put $22-28 million into Guild pension plan, as its contract requires, and may make another $60-80 million into closing that gap, reports E and P’s Mark Fitzgerald.
In old times, no big deal, but recall that the Times’ just-announced 2009 profit was $19 million. Pay the retired workers or pay current workers; you’re inevitably trading one off against the other.
As the President appoints his commission on deficit reduction and lays Social Security/Medicare changes on the table, we see the Times (and all legacy media’s) obligations in the wider perspective: combine the baby boom bulge with unprecedented economic change, and all expectations have to be checked at the door.
