Adweek hires Lee as CEO, names executive chairman

Adweek said Thursday that it has hired Will Lee as chief executive officer.

His career includes positions at NPR, People, Entertainment Weekly, and Hollywood Reporter. He will start Aug. 14.

CEO Juliette Morris and CCO Ann Marinovich, respectively, have left the company.

“I have always been drawn to the Adweek brand — not only for its strong legacy, but for its immense potential,” said Lee in a statement. “I am massively excited to work with this talented team to make Adweek more essential to its audience than ever and chart a new path forward that serves the marketing and advertising community in new and meaningful ways.”

As chief operating officer for NPR, Lee led the launch of the NPR Network, a new operating alliance maximizing the audience and revenue potential of NPR and its member stations and led strategy and product transformation.

Prior to NPR, Lee served as senior vice president and head of digital for the entertainment group at Meredith Corp. There, he led and directed the digital and video businesses of People, Entertainment Weekly, People en Español and PeopleTV, with over 130 million total monthly users and over a billion monthly content views.

In addition to the appointment of Lee as CEO, media executive Rich Battista has been named as executive chairman of the Adweek board.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.