[1] Its co-founders were Graham Sherren,[1] Michael Chamberlain, a former editor of the advertising journal Campaign, and Anthony Nares, an entrepreneur who set up Marketing Week Communications Ltd (MWC) shortly before the launch.

MWC subsequently launched Creative Review and was later subsumed into Centaur Communications, a buy-in vehicle run by Sherren and Jocelyn Stevens (1982).

Chamberlain said of this founding period: "While planning AdNews, I received a phone call from an Anthony Nares just before Christmas 1977 saying we should meet.

"[2] By the 1990s, according to a previous editor, Stuart Smith, Marketing Week magazine had become an editorial and commercial success: "Spring and autumn editions regularly boasted over 130 pages, thanks to a particularly strong performance in classified advertising.

[5] Like other outlets, Marketing Week has shifted emphasis to its website, which is currently said to attract about 395,000 monthly unique users.

Chamberlain was the first, Stephen Foster (1980–1983) the second, Howard Sharman (1983–1988) the third, Stuart Smith (1988–2008) the fourth, Mark Choueke the fifth (2009–2012), Ruth Mortimer the sixth (2012–2014) and Russell Parsons (2014–).