Outspoken businessman Dick Smith is threatening to burn 180,000 copies of a catalogue-style magazine if Rupert Murdoch's News Ltd continues to refuse to accept it as a paid insert in its Adelaide newspaper.

Mr Smith said he was amazed when News Ltd’s chief executive Kim Williams refused to run the magazine as an insert in the company’s newspapers, thinking at first that there had been a misunderstanding.

Fired up ... Dick Smith and Kim Williams.

He said he had been prepared to pay $180,000 to have the magazine inserted in News Ltd papers, in the same way catalogues for supermarkets and department stores often appeared.

In an email exchange with Mr Williams, Mr Smith wrote: ‘‘I believe there could be one serious misunderstanding. My magazine is to run as a paid advertising insert in your newspaper ... the same way Coles or Harvey Norman would run one of their brochures ... My insert is completely harmless to you and your organisation.’’