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E.W. Scripps Company Pension Plan
Frozen defined-benefit plan sponsored by The E.W. Scripps Company, managing deferred benefits with an LDI posture and private-market satellite allocations.
E.W. Scripps Company Pension Plan
The E.W. Scripps Company Pension Plan is a frozen defined-benefit plan for eligible former employees of the Cincinnati-based broadcasting and media group. The plan's sponsor, The E.W. Scripps Company, closed the plan to new entrants in 2011, shifting its posture from active accrual to safeguarding existing obligations. Decades of Scripps family governance — including a shareholder agreement managing common-stock voting — inform the conservative institutional culture that surrounds the plan. The portfolio operates under a liability-driven investing (LDI) mandate, matching asset allocation to the duration and profile of frozen benefit payments. Public-markets fixed-income forms the hedging backbone, while satellite allocations extend into private equity and real estate funds within the United States. The plan's disclosures do not name specific fund commitments, but affiliated entities — including the Scripps family office, Miramar Services, Inc. — pursue parallel private-market strategies across real assets and buyout funds. The sponsor, The E.W. Scripps Company, reported $2.3 billion in total assets as of December 31, 2024 (per SEC filing, 2025). The plan itself does not disclose a separate AUM or its funded status publicly. Governance sits inside the sponsor's corporate treasury and finance function, with no separate investment committee or CIO disclosed. Any material allocation changes likely surface only in annual SEC filings or collective bargaining disclosures. The plan's structural distinction lies in its frozen-accrual status combined with enduring ties to a single-family-controlled public company. That hybrid — a corporate pension plan where the founding family still holds significant voting influence via a shareholders' agreement — blurs the line between pure institutional plan and family-adjacent capital pool, a dynamic rare among US mid-cap corporate pensions.
General information
Firm type
Pension Fund
Year founded
—
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Cincinnati
Corporate office
312 Walnut St. Suite 2800, Cincinnati, OH 45202, United States
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
What is the current funded status of the E.W. Scripps Company Pension Plan?
The plan does not publish a standalone funded status or asset total. The sponsor, The E.W. Scripps Company, reported $2.3 billion in total corporate assets as of year-end 2024 (per SEC filing, 2025), but the pension plan's specific assets and liabilities are not broken out in publicly accessible materials. A complete funded-status disclosure would require the plan's most recent Form 5500 filing or an actuarial valuation report.
Who makes investment decisions for the plan?
The plan does not name a dedicated chief investment officer or external investment committee. Oversight rests with The E.W. Scripps Company's corporate finance and treasury function, consistent with a plan that is closed to new accruals and managed with a liability-driven investing framework. No external outsourced chief investment officer relationship is disclosed.
How does the Scripps family office relate to the pension plan?
Miramar Services, Inc. operates as the family office for descendants of Robert P. and John P. Scripps, managing legacy assets and administrative services separately from the corporate pension plan. The pension plan and the family office share a common sponsor but pursue distinct investment mandates. The family office's private-market activity in real estate and private equity runs parallel to, not pooled with, the pension plan's satellite allocations.
What prompted the plan's freeze in 2011?
The E.W. Scripps Company closed the defined-benefit plan to new participants in 2011 as part of a broader corporate restructuring that included separating its newspaper and television businesses. The freeze reduced long-term pension liability growth while preserving already-accrued benefits for existing participants, a move consistent with many US media companies shifting retirement obligations away from defined-benefit structures during that period.
Does the plan maintain any philanthropic structures?
The plan itself does not administer philanthropic programs. However, the Scripps family and its corporate sponsor maintain several foundations — including the Scripps Howard Foundation, the Adam R. Scripps Foundation, and the Scripps Family Impact Fund — all of which operate independently of pension-plan assets and governance.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
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