The decision by the McCanns to wind down the campaign after a trip to Morocco, and spend some time grieving in private, is the right one. And after more than five weeks of sustained media activity, it is a blessed relief. The stories were getting terribly thin and strained, and the danger of attracting nutters and criminals was increasing.
Last week, things reached a new low when The Times led a page with fearless investigative journalism proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that two Portuguese policemen had had a two-hour lunch and appeared to be enjoying themselves.
More seriously, there was also a call from a mobile phone, registered in Argentina, by someone who claimed to know Madeleine's whereabouts. But he didn't get back in touch and the caller is much more likely to have been a petty criminal sniffing the reward.
So it was definitely time to let go.
The events of the past five weeks have, however, demonstrated how a small number of people can get a piece of information round the world and sustain a campaign day after day. Although not yet successful in terms of the only objective that really matters, the Madeleine McCann recognition index must be in the stratosphere.
Even the Pope entered proceedings. And one last media coup is being planned - trying to persuade Google to replace the 'double o' on its homepage with Madeleine's eyes on 22 June to mark the 50th day since her disappearance.
For Gerry and Kate McCann, confronted with a silent and apparently immobile Portuguese police force, the high-profile campaign was absolutely the right thing to do. The cost was the creation of a cruel celebrity which has been self-reinforcing, and the question now is whether the media should have been so compliant in this particular game.
The rolling TV news coverage, often showing nothing, quickly became an embarrassment.
There was also the spectacle of top presenters being despatched from London in order to interview the reporters on the ground, but being able to add little, if anything, to the story.
While everyone hopes that, against the odds, Madeleine will be found alive and well, it is time for a few bold questions about this media circus. The first is the extent to which the end justifies the means. Is any degree of media manipulation justified as long as the cause is just? Pretending there is news when there really isn't can be counter-productive and lead to public boredom and apathy.
The biggest questions are the most obvious. To what extent has all this coverage been kept afloat for so long because the child is white and photogenic, and has articulate, resourceful parents? Of course, the news value of the story was also enhanced by context - everyone's worst nightmare, a child snatched from an apparently secure apartment in an upmarket holiday resort. But the sad truth is that if a black child had been snatched from a sink estate in Liverpool or Glasgow, the chances are you would not know their name.
In fact, since Madeleine's disappearance on 3 May, there have been 1200 reports of missing young people - happily not many so dramatic as the events in Portugal.
How should media cover the next abduction? BBC News 24 has heard the message and, in recent days, made a number of films about other missing British children.
The lessons emerging for all, including the McCanns, is that it is better in such circumstances to work through established charities, such as the recently rebranded Missing People. It has just launched an official yellow ribbon - to symbolise support for all missing people.
30 SECONDS ON ... MISSING PEOPLE
- The charity Missing People estimates that there are 210,000 reports of missing people every year in the UK. At least two-thirds of these will concern young people.
- Last year, the charity itself recorded more than 18,000 incidents of people going missing. Nearly 1600 of its cases were resolved and in nine out of ten cases, the missing person was found alive.
- About 100,000 young people run away every year. Most of them are between the ages of 13 and 15.
- The number of child abductions recorded by the police every year has recently has been as high as 1000.
- The Home Office estimates the risk of a missing person being the victim of homicide as one in 7000. Children below the age of 10 face at least twice this risk than the average across all ages.
www.missingpeople.org.uk.