Cameo, where celebrities record videos to fans for a fee, has been one of the pandemic winners, thanks to a number of celebrities looking for cash and unable to work. 

Co-founder and CEO Steven Galanis joined Adweek’s Challenger Brands event this week to share how the pandemic has spurred the companies’ growth. (Check out more stellar event coverage here).

Next up for Cameo, a platform for brands who want to do commercial work with celebrities. Where there's an audience, advertisers follow.

I also wrote about the mounting reasons why media companies are turning to SPACs in the last six months. The shaky foundations of raising money with less oversight means we are likely “six months from reading about the first SPAC disaster,” CEO of Prohaska Consulting Matt Prohaska told me.

Elsewhere, we learn that “Facebook has refriended Australia,” as the Australian treasurer Josh Frydenberg put it. The platform will now follow Google and cut deals with media companies, the first is Seven West Media.

What's interesting is the outlets that declare their dealings with the platforms, as one wistful hope in all this regulatory back-and-forth is more transparency between how platforms fund journalism.

• The Financial Times has reached commercial agreements for news with Google and Facebook 
• News Corp Australia declined to comment on the prospect of a Facebook deal, according to The Wall Street Journal

The worry, from people I speak with, is this pushes us further down the line where, similar to paywalls, access to credible evidence-based information is available to those who can afford it. How much of a long-term fix will this flush of cash be? Keen to hear your thoughts, please get in touch at the email below. 

On that related note, please consider supporting our journalism with an Adweek+ Subscription and gain full access to all of Adweek's essential coverage and resources.

Thanks for reading and have a great week!

Lucinda

Lucinda.southern@adweek.com 

Luma Partners' ecosystem counts 250—34 of which have completed a merger.

The streaming platform also revealed updates to its Streaming Ad Insertion technology and self-serve platform Spotify Ad Studio.

The tech giant stopped such ads in mid-January.

The study found spikes in unreliability.