As Meck Deck readers were told would happen, McClatchy today was forced to begin to hack off parts in order to raise cash.

This morning it was the MNI stake in Shoplocal acquired when Knight Ridder was purchased. McClatchy realized almost $8m. from the sale to Gannett and immediately used the proceeds to pay down debt. As it must.

Now things get interesting. McClatchy can either start selling off papers or some of the supposedly “premium digital assets” it holds — stakes in CareerBuilder and the like. Actually, I’d keep the papers first. Social networking sites are gonna trump online classifieds soon enough. I’d get out of those now.

Meanwhile, shares of MNI are off almost 7 percent right now, which tells you the market is similarly unimpressed with the Shoplocal move. Market cap may hit $400m. by the end of the day.