AceShowbiz - Matthew Belloni has announced his exit as the editorial chief of The Hollywood Reporter after a dispute with his bosses over their attempt to meddle in the coverage of the entertainment industry. Matthew made his shocking announcement on Monday, April 6 after 14 years with the leading media brand and nearly four year as its top editor.

"My 14 years at THR have been the greatest of my professional life," Matthew wrote in an email to staff. "It's been a privilege to lead this group of amazing journalists - a nonstop, 24/7, nerve-racking, gray hair-inducing, often absurd and hilarious privilege - and most of all challenging and rewarding."

Modi Wiczyk and Asif Satchu, co-CEOs of Valence Media, THR's parent company, has reacted to Matthew's departure, "We respect and like Matt a great deal," they said. "It has been enjoyable to work together, and we greatly admire his commitment to impactful journalism. He has pushed the team to hold itself to a high standard, and we are proud of the work he and the entire editorial group have done these past years."

While Matthew called his exit "100% amicable," he alluded to tensions with the heads of the magazine's parent company and partner company MRC over their attempt to meddle with the publication's editorial independence. "No, the current global situation didn't play a role in my exit. (In fact, it makes it even harder to leave this team when we're rising to the occasion and covering the crisis as well as we are.) Today's announcement is the result of a series of conversations I've had for a few months with Modi about the direction at THR," he wrote in his exit announcement. "Some may want to read into that, but I'll just say that well-meaning, diligent, ambitious people can disagree about fundamental priorities and strategies."

According to reports, Modi and Asif as well as MRC's president Deanna Brown tried to interfere with the magazine's coverage several times, including when Deanna complained to Matthew about the tone of a piece about Jennifer Lopez signing a new contract with Guess, after the clothing company's co-founder Paul Marciano had resigned following sexual harassment complaints. Matthew was reminded that MRC did business with J.Lo.

"There's no real new reporting or expertise here," Deanna wrote in an email to Matthew. "How does this serve the industry, talent, or the company. You likely or the industry held Marciano accountable a year and half ago (truth to power)." She continued, "We had an agreement that you would alert me to anything controversial - and this registers (as much by the headline) as in the multiple touch points to JLO in the company."

According to multiple sources, MRC attempted to kill a juicy story by veteran reporter Kim Masters about Louise Linton, the wife of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Someone close to Louise reportedly complained about the story to higher ups at Valence, who then asked for it to be scrapped, but Matthew declined and the piece was eventually published. Louise's representative, however, claimed that she and her team dealt exclusively with THR, and did not appeal to Valence higher-ups.

On another occasion, Deanna complained to Brown about the publication's negative coverage of the entertainment industry, which she claimed had overshadowed an event the publication had with actress Reese Witherspoon. "We have our big event (WIE) and a celebration of Reese and its clouded by the other negative coverage above (not sure you can see the coverage that took away from a great moment for Reese)," Deanna said.

Another source of contention was a published list of the decade's best and worst movies. Deanna told Matthew the piece was "off-strategy" and later killed a planned television segment based on it.

Sources said that Modi and Asif also wanted to come up with a list of people and institutions that it might be problematic for THR to cover. When Matthew said that was untenable, he was told to embrace the new order or resign.

Hollywood Reporter staff members additionally expressed concern that a Valence Media executive was looking in Slack channels for details on planned stories. Emily Spence, the executive vice president of communications at Valence Media, admitted that she had gone into newsroom Slack channels before realizing it was "an infringement." She said, "I removed myself from the rooms and I have asked I.T. to make these channels only available to editorial employees."

Despite reports of the higher ups' attempt to interfere with the publication's coverage, a spokesperson for Valence Media claimed, "We are committed to our publications and to journalistic integrity. We are, and have been for the past 18 months, in the process of working with the Poynter Institute to follow modern best practices and maintain optimal editorial independence. We have implemented many of Poynter's recommended changes and recently opened up the discussion beyond our leadership teams to all editorial staff."