McClatchy continues selling off assets -- dumps "Real Cities" online ad network

McClatchy appears to be selling off its assets, as Centro announced late Wednesday that it has purchased McClatchy's Real Cities, an online ad network. Editor & Publisher:

The McClatchy Co. has sold Real Cities to Chicago-based Centro for an undisclosed sum.

Centro provides software to help agencies plan and buy advertising on local Web sites. Real Cities is the online advertising network started by Knight Ridder in 2000 that sold online inventory of participating newspapers. About 1,800 newspaper Web sites are part of Real Cities.

For Centro, the deal gives the company the opportunity to bring inventory to advertisers and to build scale.

"We've partnered so much with Real Cities and McClatchy over the years and have such a tremendous amount of respect for the leadership team that it's a great pleasure to bring our companies together," Shawn Riegsecker, chairman and CEO of Centro, said in a statement.

We don't know the terms of the deal, but it has the whiff of desepration about it. Last month, McClatchy sold ShopLocal at a loss, and in January, McClatchy sold its share in a newsprint company.
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