Haymarket-owned Media Week has been accused of being "craven" to its sister titles after consulting Management Today (also Haymarket) over a pitch for a feature about Real Business.
Caspian Publishing, which recently relaunched Real Business in A5 format, said their coverage in Media Week appeared dependent on the approval of competitor, Management Today.
In an email to Caspian group editor Matthew Rock, Media Week had expressed concern that the story was "too B2B", but said it would run the pitch past the editor of Management Today, Matthew Gwyther, to see if he "thought it had legs or not".
Caspian CEO Mike Bokaie has since written to Media Week, accusing the magazine of lacking in "full and fair coverage".
In reply, Media Week editor Philip Smith denied the claims. He commented: "Media Week's coverage does not depend on the ‘say so' of any editor other than myself."
He added: "We welcome suggestions, ideas and inspiration for our features coverage from all sectors of the industry. And I am sure that you would expect us to research and test out such ideas before committing to them.
"If we did not take such an approach we would be as guilty of the unfairness you are accusing us of."
Bokaie said: "It is now my concern that Media Week's coverage seems to depend on the say so of Management Today's editor.
"Such a policy is, at best, craven; at worst, it's a case of a big company abusing its strength in its marketplace."
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog
