Transforming Adweek: A Conversation with CEO Will Lee
# B2B
# Leadership
How Adweek’s CEO is redefining media through data, AI, and a bold vision for business intelligence in the marketing ecosystem.
Heather Holst-Knudsen
In a wide-ranging conversation on the Revenue Room Podcast, Adweek CEO Will Lee shared his vision for transforming the 45-year-old trade publication into what he calls a "business intelligence resource platform." With over two decades of experience at major media brands including NPR, People, and Entertainment Weekly, Lee brings a unique perspective to leading Adweek during a transformative period in media and advertising.
Lee's journey with Adweek began unexpectedly in his youth, reading the magazine while waiting at his local library. Now as CEO, he sees Adweek as "a startup with a great head start," positioning the brand to evolve beyond its trade publication roots to become an essential resource for the entire marketing ecosystem.
Leadership Philosophy
Will Lee’s leadership philosophy is grounded in what he calls the "three T's":
Tenacity - the ability to navigate constant industry change;
Timeliness - a sense of urgency in execution; and
Taste - maintaining high standards that extend beyond content to every aspect of the business.
Under his leadership, Adweek is evolving its revenue model. While advertising remains central, Lee envisions expanding direct-to-consumer revenue through high-value intelligence products and services designed to help professionals make better decisions.
Dual Data Strategy
Lee has implemented a dual data strategy to drive this transformation. On one side, consumer-facing data is leveraged through their data editor to deliver actionable insights for stories ranging from major mergers to brand analyses. On the other, operational data accumulated over 45 years is being used to optimize advertiser relationships and improve the subscriber experience. This data-driven approach also extends to content evolution, with an interesting trend emerging: direct traffic to Adweek.com has increased since ChatGPT's launch, as readers increasingly seek authoritative source material over AI-summarized content. To deepen this advantage, Lee plans to harness AI to unlock historical archives and provide greater context, such as tracing the evolution of holding companies.
Embracing AI
Rather than resisting AI, Lee encourages his team to embrace it as a tool to expand creative possibilities, analyze large datasets more effectively, and test and optimize content with unprecedented speed and scale. A recent partnership with Perplexity enhances search capabilities while providing valuable insights into user interaction data.
Vision for Growth
Lee’s vision is built on four strategic pillars: editorial content, events and convening, peer-to-peer community building, and business intelligence and analytics. He aims to expand Adweek's reach beyond marketing professionals to include CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, and other C-suite executives who need to understand marketing's broader business impact. This strategy is guided by three key principles, or "I's": investment-grade journalism that drives financial decisions, inspiration through community and peer interactions, and intelligence that enhances professional effectiveness.
What's particularly striking about Lee's approach is his emphasis on utility and actionable intelligence. As he puts it,
I only want seven minutes of your day, but I want it to be the first seven in the morning."
This focus on becoming an essential part of professionals' daily workflow reflects a broader transformation of media brands from pure information providers to integrated business tools.
Looking ahead, Lee sees significant industry disruption on the horizon and positions Adweek to be both a provocateur and practical resource helping professionals navigate change. With a clear vision and strategic framework in place, the next chapter of Adweek's evolution will be fascinating to watch.
The conversation underscores a broader trend in B2B media: the shift from traditional publishing models to comprehensive platforms that combine content, community, and intelligence to drive business value. As Lee notes, "We have to unmess the mess" – helping professionals make sense of an increasingly complex marketing and advertising landscape.
How to listen to our full conversation with Will Lee:
Heather Holst-Knudsen is a distinguished figure and expert in the events, media, marketing and technology sectors. Using her extensive experience, she guides clients in adapting to structural economic and market changes, seizing the chance to innovate and evolve. She specializes in digital and data disruption and opportunity, exploring how these overarching factors can impact revenue growth, customer-centricity, operational efficiency, profit margins, and the overall valuation of companies in both public and private markets.
Her journey began at her family business, Thomas Publishing Company, where she honed her skills. She further expanded her expertise by holding positions at early industry giants Miller Freeman, Reed Elsevier, and IDG. Returning to Thomas Publishing, Heather founded and spearheaded Manufacturing Enterprise Communications, an integrated media portfolio connecting buyers and sellers in the manufacturing and technology sectors. Starting in 2015 and spanning the next seven years, she leveraged her expertise as a revenue and business leader in various SaaS businesses, including Feathr, Gleanin, Brella and Edflex.
Heather is deeply passionate about digital innovation, data monetization, and AI and how these strategies fuel revenue growth, profitability, and company valuation. To serve and create value for clients in these areas, she launched H2K Labs, dedicated to generating and leveraging value through data for media, business information, events, and adjacent technology and service markets.
