The press of time pays off.

• Position: Freedom Newspapers Inc.'s employee pension benefits

Robert Huggins drives an '86 Chevy, lives in a modest red-brick house and has nearly $1 million in pension benefits socked away in the bank.

Sure, it's great that the 85-year-old part-time night watchman at The Gastonia Gazette became a millionaire. But at whose expense? Ask a champion of Libertarian sentiment, Freedom Newspaper Group, that question. But don't expect a good answer.

Though Freedom bought the Gazette in 1969, it wasn't until 1989 that the company set up pension plans at its 25 dailies, 27 weeklies, five TV stations or cable news network, says Mike Lednovich, information director.

Irvine, Calif.-based Freedom is well-known in the newspaper industry for its owners' anti-government philosophy. To show Big Government's big appetite some years back, on payday the Gazette's former publisher D.R. Segal handed employees cash at one table, then made them fork over their federal, state and Social Security taxes at nearby tables.

In place of a pension, the Gazette typically paid its workers a week's extra pay at Christmas and 3% of their annual wages in a profit-sharing check. But in 1989, says the current publisher, Mike McMillan, "Freedom wanted to recognize longtime associates, so they went back and gave them one and a half years' credit for each year worked, including predecessor companies."

Under...