References to “we”, “our”, “us” and the like throughout the Consolidated Financial Statements refer to the Company. References to “2017”“2018”, “2016”“2017” and the like refer to the fiscal years ended the last Sunday in September.

Investments in TNI and MNI are accounted for using the equity method and are reported at cost, plus our share of undistributed earnings since acquisition less, for TNI, amortization of intangible assets.

In August 2014,February 2018, the Financial Accounting Standards Board ("FASB") issued a new going concern standard.standard that gives entities the option to reclassify the tax effects related to items in accumulated other comprehensive income as a result of tax reform to retained earnings. The new standard provides guidance on how management evaluatesis effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2018, and disclosesinterim periods within those fiscal years.

In March 2017, the Company's abilityFASB issued a new standard to continueimprove the presentation of pension and postretirement benefit expense. The new standard requires that the service cost component of pension and postretirement benefits expense is recognized as a going concern compensation expense, while the remaining components of the expense (benefit) are presented outside of operating income. The current presentation includes all components of the expense (benefit) as Compensation in our Consolidated Statements of Income and Comprehensive Income

for a look-forward periodthe periods presented. The adoption of one year from the financial statement issuance date. We adopted the new standard is required in 2017, as required.fiscal 2019. If adopted in fiscal year 2018, compensation expense would increase $2,776,000 on an annual basis.

In August 2016, the FASB issued a new standard to conform the presentation in the statement of cash flows for certain transactions, including cash distribution from equity method investments, among others. The adoption of the new standard is required in fiscal year 2020. The adoption of this standard will reclassify certain cash receipts within the Consolidation Statements of Cash Flows.

In March 2016, the FASB issued a new standard with improvements to the accounting for employee share-based payments. The new standard simplifies several aspects of the accounting for employee share-based payment transactions, including the accounting for income taxes and statutory tax withholding requirements, as well as classification in the statement of cash flows. We adopted this new standard in 2018, as required, and the adoption did not have a material impact on the Consolidated Financial Statements.

In February 2016, the FASB issued a new standard for the accounting treatment of leases. Under the new guidance, lessees will be required to recognize a lease liability and a right-of-use asset for all leases with terms greater than 12 months. Leases will be classified as either finance or operating, with classification affecting the pattern of expense recognition in the statement of income. We currently anticipate adopting the new lease standard in the first quarter of our fiscal year 2020. To date we have made progress in our assessment of the new lease standard. We are currently evaluating the provisions of the updated guidance and assessing the impact on our Consolidated Financial Statements, takenStatements.

We currently anticipate adopting the new revenue recognition standard using the modified retrospective approach in the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2018. This approach consists of recognizing the cumulative effect, if any, of initially applying the standard as an adjustment to opening retained earnings.

Income or loss of TNI (before income taxes) is allocated equally to Star Publishing and Citizen.

TNI makes weekly distributions of its earnings and for the 13 weeks ended March 25, 2018 and March 26, 2017 and March 27, 2016 we received $1,437,000$1,631,000 and $2,251,000$1,437,000 in distributions, respectively. In the 26 weeks ended March 25, 2018 and March 26, 2017 and March 27, 2016 we received $2,420,000$3,198,000 and $3,729,000$2,420,000 in distributions, respectively.

Annual amortization of intangible assets is estimated to be $418,000 for the 52 or 53 weeks ending March 2018, 2019 and 2020.2020, respectively, and zero thereafter.

Summarized results of MNI are as follows:

MNI makes quarterly distributions of its earnings and in the 13 weeks ended March 26, 201725, 2018 and March 27, 201626, 2017 we received dividends of $1,000,000$1,250,000 and $2,250,000,$1,000,000, respectively. In the 26 weeks ended March 26, 201725, 2018 and March 27, 201626, 2017 we received dividends of $2,250,000$2,000,000 and $4,000,000,$2,250,000, respectively.

Changes in the carrying amount of goodwill are as follows:

Annual amortization of intangible assets for the 52 or 53 weeks ended March 20182019 to March 20222023 is estimated to be $20,788,000, $16,546,000, $15,382,000, $15,119,000$16,992,000, $15,827,000, $15,564,000, $12,924,000 and $12,469,000,$12,019,000, respectively.

On March 31, 2014, we completed a comprehensive refinancing of our debt (the"2014 Refinancing"), which included the following:

Our weighted average cost of debt, excluding amortization of debt financing costs at March 26, 2017,25, 2018, is 9.8%9.9%.

At March 26, 2017,25, 2018, aggregate minimum required maturities of debt excluding amounts required to be paid from future excess cash flow computations total $16,988,000$18,759,000 for the remainder of 2017, $25,000,000 in 2018, $32,734,000$12,145,000 in 2019, zero$0 in 2020, zero$0 in 2021, $385,000,000 in 2022 and $510,196,000$100,417,000 thereafter.

The Notes are senior secured obligations of the Company and mature on March 15, 2022. At March 26, 2017,25, 2018, the principal balance of the Notes totaled $385,000,000.

We may redeem some, or all, of the principal amount of the Notes at any time. Prior to March 15, 2018, we may redeem the Notes subject to a make whole provision for the interest through March 15, 2018. On or after March 15, 2018, we may redeem the Notes as follows:

If we sell certain of our assets or experience specific kinds of changes of control, we must, subject to certain exceptions, offer to purchase the Notes at 101% of the principal amount. Any redemption of the Notes must also satisfy any accrued and unpaid interest thereon.

be used for working capital and general corporate purposes (including letters of credit). At March 26, 2017,25, 2018, after consideration of letters of credit, we have approximately $33,318,000$33,835,000 available for future use under the Revolving Facility.

The Warrant Agreement contains a cash settlement provision in the event of a change of control prior to March 31, 2018 as well as other provisions requiring the Warrants to be measured at fair value and included in other liabilities in our Consolidated Balance Sheets. We remeasurere-measure the fair value of the liability each reporting period, with changes reported in other, net non-operating income (expense). The initial fair value of the Warrants was $16,930,000. See Note 9.

In connection with the issuance of the Warrants, we entered into a Registration Rights Agreement dated as of March 31, 2014 (the “Registration Rights Agreement”). The Registration Rights Agreement requires, among other matters, that we use our commercially reasonable efforts to maintain the effectiveness for certain specified periods of a shelf registration statement related to the shares of Common Stock to be issued upon exercise of the Warrants.

The rights of each of the collateral agents with respect to the Lee Legacy Collateral and the Pulitzer Collateral are subject to customary intercreditor and intercompany agreements.

$4,359,000 in 2022. At March 26, 2017,25, 2018, we have $24,421,000$19,621,000 of unamortized debt financing costs recorded as a reduction of Long-term debt in our Consolidated Balance Sheets.

 

Final maturities of our debt range from December 2018 through December 2022.

We have several noncontributory defined benefit pension plans that together cover selected employees. Benefits under the plans were generally based on salary and years of service. Effective in 2012, substantially all benefits are frozen and only a small amount of additional benefits are being accrued. Our liability and related expense for benefits under the plans are recorded over the service period of employees based upon annual actuarial calculations. Plan funding strategies are influenced by government regulations. Plan assets consist primarily of domestic and foreign corporate equity securities, government and corporate bonds, hedge fund investments and cash.

 

In addition, we provide retiree medical and life insurance benefits under postretirement plans at several of our operating locations. The level and adjustment of participant contributions vary depending on the specific plan. In addition, St. Louis Post-Dispatch LLC, provides postemployment disability benefits to certain employee groups prior to retirement. Our liability and related expense for benefits under the postretirement plans are recorded over the service period of active employees based upon annual actuarial calculations. We accrue postemployment disability benefits when it becomes probable that such benefits will be paid and when sufficient information exists to make reasonable estimates of the amounts to be paid.

We use a fiscal year end measurement date for all of our pension and postretirement medical plan obligations.

 

The net periodic postretirement cost (benefit) components for our postretirement plans are as follows:

Amortization of net gains (losses) and prior service benefits are recorded as compensation in the Consolidated Statements of Income and Comprehensive Income.

In March 2017, we notified certain participants in one of our post employment medical plans of changes to their plans.plan and in December 2017, our fiscal second quarter, the plan was terminated. These changes resulted in a non-cash curtailment gain of $2,031,000 in the 13 weeks ended March 25, 2018 and $3,741,000 which isin the 13 weeks ended March 26, 2017. Curtailment gains are recorded in gain on sales of assets and other, net in the Consolidated Statements of incomeIncome and Comprehensive Income. These changes also reduced the postemployment benefit obligation by $5,158,000 and also reduced accumulated other comprehensive loss by $1,417,000.income.

Including the transitional impact of revaluing deferred tax assets and liabilities, we recorded an income tax expense of $927,000 and a tax benefit of $18,763,000 related to income before taxes of $3,460,000 and $19,097,000 for the 13 and 26 weeks ended March 25, 2018, respectively. We recorded income tax expense of $1,144,000 and $7,410,000 related to income before taxes of $7,521,000 and $26,228,000 for the 13 and 26 weeks ended March 26, 2017, respectively. For

The effective income tax rate for the 13 and 26 weeks ended March 27, 2016, we recorded $12,389,00025, 2018 was 26.8% and $19,535,000 in income tax expense related to income before taxes of $31,872,000 and $50,526,000, respectively. The effective income tax rates for the 13 weeks ended March 26, 2017 and March 27, 2016 were 15.2% and 38.9%a negative 98.3%, respectively. The effective income tax ratesrate for the 13 and 26 weeks ended March 26, 2017 was 15.2% and March 27, 2016 were 28.3% and 38.7%, respectively. The primarymajority of the differences between thesethe effective tax rates and the U.S. federal statutory rate of 35% aretax rates were due to the effecttransitional adjustments from the 2017 Tax Act as well as the nontaxable income and nondeductible expenses related to the fair value adjustment of state income taxes, non-deductible expenses, adjustments to reserves for uncertain tax positions, including any related interest, and mark-to-market adjustments to value the Warrants.warrants.

We file a consolidated federal tax return, as well as combined and separate tax returns in approximately 27 state and local jurisdictions. We have various income tax examinations ongoing which are at different stages of completion, but generally our income tax returns have been audited or closed to audit through 2009. See Note 10 for a discussion of our tax audits.

At September 25, 2016,2017, we had approximately $57,392,000$57,856,000 of state net operating loss tax benefits and a federal net operating loss carryforward of approximately $58,618,000. Due to our federal and state net operating loss carryforwards and based on historical levels of performance, we do not expect to make any significant income tax payments in the current fiscal year.$6,247,000.

The following table sets forth the computation of basic and diluted earnings per common share:

Total unrecognized compensation expense for unvested restricted Common Stock at March 26, 201725, 2018 is $3,879,000,$3,003,892, which will be recognized over a weighted average period of 1.71.5 years.

The following methods and assumptions are used to estimate the fair value of each class of financial instruments for which it is practicable to estimate value.

The carrying amounts of cash equivalents, accounts receivable and accounts payable approximate fair value because of the short maturity of those instruments. Investments totaling $6,818,000,$6,318,000, including our 17% ownership of the nonvoting common stock of TCT and a private equity investment, are carried at cost. As of March 31,September 30, 2017, based on the most recent data available, the approximate fair value of the private equity

investment is $8,164,000,$9,183,000, which is a level 3 fair value measurement. Fair value of the remaining investments approximates book value.

We file income tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") and various state tax jurisdictions. From time to time, we are subject to routine audits by those agencies and those audits may result in proposed adjustments. We have considered the alternative interpretations that may be assumed by the various taxing agencies, believe our positions taken regarding our filings are valid, and that adequate tax liabilities have been recorded to resolve such matters. However, the actual outcome cannot be determined with certainty and the difference could be material, either positively or negatively, to the Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Income (Loss) in the periods in which such matters are ultimately determined. We do not believe the final resolution of such matters will be material to our consolidated financial position or cash flows.

We have various income tax examinations ongoing and at various stages of completion, but generally our income tax returns have been audited or closed to audit through 2009.

We are involved in a variety of legal actions that arise in the normal course of business. Insurance coverage mitigates potential loss for certain of these matters. While we are unable to predict the ultimate outcome of these legal actions, it is our opinion that the disposition of these matters will not have a material adverse effect on our Consolidated Financial Statements, taken as a whole.

OneThe Company contributes to three multiemployer pension plans. In June 2017, a union contract covering certain of our enterprise's bargaining units withdrewemployees under a multiemployer pension plan expired resulting in a partial withdrawal from representation, and as a result we are subject to a future claim fromone of the multiemployer plans. In 2017, the Company recorded an estimate of the partial withdrawal liability totaling $2,600,000. Once the multiemployer pension plan for aplan's administrators finalize the partial withdrawal liability. The amount and timing of such liability, it will be dependent on actions taken, or not taken, by the Company and the pension plan, as well as the future investment performance and funding status of the pension plan. Any withdrawal liability determined to be due under this plan will be fundedpaid in equal installments over a period of 20 years.twenty year period.