Media General Inc., Richmond, Va., will freeze its defined benefit pension plan, the company said today, finalizing a process the media company began more than two years ago.
Media General closed the plan to new employees at the start of 2007 and stopped service accruals for current plan participants, with their retirement benefits based on final average salary when the participants terminated employment or retired.
Today, however, Media General said retirement benefits for current participants will be based on their final average salary as of May 31.
The freeze is Media General’s second retirement plan cutback this year. In January, it said it would suspend, effective April 1, its 401(k) plan matching contribution through the end of this year. It had been matching 100% of employees’ salary deferrals up to 5% of pay.
Jerry Geisel is a reporter at Business Insurance, a sister publication of Pensions & Investments.
