Memo from Dennis FitzSimons CEO Tribune

From: Dennis FitzSimons
Sent: Wednesday, April 04, 2007 8:04 AM
Subject: Retirement Benefits

Dear Fellow Employee:

Based on this week’s earlier communications, you already know about the important changes that lie ahead for Tribune Company. There has been a lot of media coverage—some very good, and some that contained factual errors.

One topic that I want to be sure you are clear on is the status of retirement benefits. As I said at this week’s Town Hall meeting, existing retirement and pension benefits are secure. If you earned benefits from pension plans that ended in recent years, those benefits are safe. At the end of 2006, Tribune’s pension assets of over $1.7 billion and the plans were overfunded by more than $200 million.

To recap, beginning in 2008, eligible Tribune employees will have a new, well-balanced retirement plan made up of three components.

· Cash Balance Plan—A newly-created Cash Balance Plan will be funded entirely by the company and provide a 3 percent annual allocation to each eligible employee’s Cash Balance Plan account. In effect, this creates a “floor” retirement benefit that you can count on. Interest will be credited quarterly to employee accounts based on the 10-year U.S. Treasury Note.

· ESOP—The newly-created ESOP, funded solely through company contributions, will be invested in shares of Tribune stock. Each year, an allocation will be made among employee accounts in the ESOP Trust. The first allocation from the ESOP to the retirement accounts of eligible employees will be for the year 2008, and will be made in early 2009. The company has initially targeted an annual allocation of approximately 5 percent of eligible employees’ salaries.

· Existing 401(k) plans—Eligible employees may continue contributing to their 401(k) accounts up to IRS maximums.

Company contributions to the 401(k) Savings & Profit Sharing Plan will continue through the earlier of the merger closing or Dec. 31, 2007. Union 401(k) plans are unaffected by the merger and any company contributions will continue through the end of the year. In addition, if you participate in the 401(k) Savings & Profit Sharing Plan, Tribune will announce a final profit sharing contribution based on the company’s 2007 financial performance early in 2008.

We’ll communicate more information in the weeks ahead. In the meantime, please visit triblink.trb and tribuneathome.com for updates on the ESOP and other aspects of this week’s announcement. New Q&As are being posted regularly. You also may contact the Tribune Benefits Service Center at 800/872-2222.

Sincerely,

Dennis

SOURCE: Russ Newton