Joseph said the changes were “fairly minor product updates designed to keep WhatsApp competitive”.

He added: “Mark Zuckerberg seems to be trying to return to the founder-led tech startup model of placing huge, bold bets on the future. The question now is, how easy is it to make those big bets work when you're not talking about a nimble startup, but a $500bn behemoth?”

Douglas said “These magazines are very strongly in that position because that is their heritage. It’s almost like the market has shaped themselves around the product they have been running for a long time."

Claire said “The streamer bubble is well and truly burst,” says Enders. “The Netflix share price drop has been the harbinger of all of these phenomena — the Wall Street people don’t believe in it anymore.” 

She added that that there is no more room in the top tier, which comprises Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video.

“They will keep open the possibility of launching in these other European markets. When they see that they build up a big audience on pay TV for ‘House of Dragons,’ for instance, and the other spinoffs, they’ll see that has perpetuated the value."

To be clear, these cuts are likely to be uneven. What the current rationalization of ad spending is making unequivocal is that not all direct response advertising is created equal. If anything, it’s driving a divide between higher and lower funnel direct response advertising, said Jamie MacEwan, media analyst at Enders Analysis. 

Claire said “The new model keeps the show on the road but there is no leeway for future commitment."

“It’s an extremely short-sighted move. Just look at how the BBC turned the 2012 [London] Olympics into a global performance, reigniting tourism to the UK and making an enormous financial contribution. The BBC was planning for years for that event.”

She added “The British system is ginormous and the French don’t quite have the same understanding of the role they play in the world."

Douglas said the news business “desperately needs and wants more innovation."

“The news media today looks identical to the news media in 1990. The news format looks the same, the [big] brands are the same,” McCabe said, pointing to the struggles experienced by start-ups launched in the 2000s such as BuzzFeed that tried to shake up the industry.

He added  “Over the last three or four years, those businesses look like they turned a corner . . . media has become investable again.”

Gareth said “EA has clearly had a lot of time to prepare for this event to occur. They’re probably finding it refreshing that they can do really interesting things with clubs and players around the franchise, which is what they’ve always wanted to do.” 

Jamie said “Google Search and Amazon ads have led the pack this quarter, which is an expected flight to safety by advertisers prioritizing short-term return on investment. The search and e-commerce havens are also sheltered from the effects of Apple’s privacy changes since they are largely contextual and close to the point of purchase. That resilience contrasts with the weakness shown by Meta, Snap, YouTube and Twitter.”

He added "If you look at absolute growth, what agencies are reporting isn’t inconsistent with the platforms’ results."

Douglas said he was unsurprised by the initial findings for the first quarter of 2022. “It was always going to be great,” he said, especially compared to the lockdowns that haunted the same period in 2021.

“Advertising spend is moving closer and closer to transaction, and retreating away from big brand campaigns that are all about profits and emphasising brand coolness."