Gannett (previously Gatehouse) is shutting down their newspaper content offering More Content Now.
More Content Now is closing operations on May 31, 2021. We have enjoyed working with you these past nine years and are so grateful you found our work of value.
From 2013 is the introduction to the service:
GateHouse Media, Inc., a leading multi-media company providing news and information to local communities, has launched More Content Now, where publishers can find high-quality feature articles, pages and special sections through subscriptions or a la carte purchasing.
“More Content Now should be a destination site for any print or online editor looking for affordable content in key areas, or any ad manager looking for click-and-sell special sections,” said Lisa Glowinski, editor of More Content Now.
all images and cartoons © their respective copyright owners
As seen above with the planned special sections they, at one time, had intended to continue through the year. Some of the content is basically “evergreen” so it can be planned far (years) ahead of time with some updating, but they also offered more timely content in news and sports, etc.
Just a year ago the National Newspaper Association announced that, due to the Covid pandemic More Content Now would be offering, yes, more content:
Adapting due to the current health crisis, More Content Now is modifying and expanding its content schedule to provide more material that fits readers’ current lifestyle.
More Content Now, a part of Gannett, is a supplier of syndicated content, including high-quality Premium sections, special sections, a variety of ready-to-use weekly pages (health, food, travel, kids, etc.) and a variety of sports pages, including NASCAR, college and professional football and Major League Baseball.
Not listed among those offerings are political cartoons, but the service did syndicate editorial cartoons to newspapers, and MCN had a regular lineup of freelance cartoonists who have now lost a gig.
Joe O’Mahoney (Joseph Mahoney), 
and Joey Weatherford.
It is also said that MCN director Lisa Glowinski and editor Michael Toeset and 3 others are being laid off instead of continuing with Gannett.
Creator Mark Marderosian
https://www.instagram.com/markmarderosian/?hl=en
contributed to More Content Now as a freelancer.
He sent us a note with some background about the operation.
We found the missive interesting and informative.
Mark has graciously given us permission to share the letter:
“I had a steady gig with them for eleven years. I’ve been a freelance cartoonist for forty-five years so I’m well versed with the field’s feast or famine rhythms. But Gatehouse botched this badly when they bought Gannett. They were posting my comic strips/activities/game content on their servers for papers to download. Popular with folks. Then, at the onset of the pandemic, the number of papers using the content surged. My fan mail tripled. As usual, families and kids were writing to me saying how much they were enjoying the content. When I spoke with an exec there about the shutdown, I mentioned yet again how short-sighted a move it was because they were eliminating content that builds reader loyalty and created the young readers of tomorrow right now. The exec said, “That’s a good point. We should’ve brought that up in the meeting.” But it wouldn’t have mattered. Gannett is determined to make their “local” newspapers nothing but generic weekly shoppers while they seek their golden parachutes.”