Clashes between traditional and new media are set to intensify further in China with the established players looking to counter the unbridled growth of online news apps through a slew of measures, including legal action.

The latest offensive in the standoff between the old and new guard surfaced during the weekend, when several

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leading portals and media giants asked Toutiao.com, an online reading app, to stop unauthorized news links, reproductions and forwards.

The news came close on the heels of Toutiao's announcement on Wednesday that it had won a third round of financing of $100 million, which boosted its market value to an estimated $500 million.

An earlier report from Beijing Times had said that five media giants, including Tencent and Sohu.com, had filed complaints and urged Toutiao to pull the news links. But Zhang Yiming, chief executive officer of Toutiao.com told China Daily on Monday that only four companies, barring Sohu.com, have asked the company to pull the links.

"The report about Sohu was a 'misquote'," said Zhang adding that, "the cooperation between us has been lasting and harmonious."

"We signed an agreement with the Tencent department responsible for mobile Internet news last August," said Zhang, indicating that they had the legal rights to repost news links.

On the other hand, Tencent insists that have not formalized any working relationship with Toutiao.

"We have never signed any such agreement," said Bai Weilin, a spokesman from Tencent's network media division.