https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KTe4lHLlcs
The first ten minutes of this video shows the consequences of revealing one's intentions in advance and why it is a really dumb idea. In boxing terms it's known as "telegraphing your punches".
"The police and the media? . IMO the police use the media to their own ends and don't much care about how they go about it within limits. They will cast a little bread upon the water to see what comes up/back that is beneficial to them [the police]; overall a kind of symbiotic mutualism".
I doubt police forces send out subliminal messages as a conscious tactic.
In summary:
1 To reveal one's full intentions in advance imo is dumb and likely to lead to rapid failure.
2 IMO opinion the police will give info to the press if they feel they, the police, will benefit from it . The question is the level of reliability/exclusivity of the info imparted by the police. Bearing in mind the sole object of the press is to sell copy it rather puts the police in the driving seat.
Subliminal messages to whom?
If they hadn't been eliminated, the simplest would have been a PR waffly phrase to include all possibilities. Egg-on-face avoidance 101.
The PJ also reopened their investigation, and clearly stated that the McCanns weren't suspects - although I agree that that had been denied in the past just prior to arguidodom - but times have moved on. They could also have stated that they were taking the case back to zero.
The latest update was that the Met is now concentrating on a single outstanding lead.
As it hasn't been divulged what that is, speculation is still rife.
Some may still have "hope" that it's a subliminal message that it's the McCanns "whatdunnit".
I find it far more likely that both forces are still trying to work out the identity of one or more potential offenders in a broader investigation involving a spate of sexual actual/attempted/about to attempt cases in the area at the
time. As I still haven't found anything in the media that would indicate that anyone has been charged with those offences, I find that to be a likely possibility.
And, that may even include whether that or those persons were in the vicinity of Joana's disappearance at the time, for whom there is no evidence that she ever arrived back home that night.