Media: All about ... Publicis' media operations.

Publicis' media networks benefit from a simple model.

There's no workable French translation for 'downturn' - that most awkward of Anglo-Saxon business euphemisms. Not in advertising, at any rate. Publicis, which clearly revels in being the odd one out when it comes to the major advertising power blocs, revealed last week that its net earnings had grown by an astonishing 50 per cent in the first half of the year, thanks partly to a red-hot winning streak in new-business pitches.

The highlight was Starcom's capture in May of General Motors' dollars 3.2 billion US media buying account (it already handled planning) from Interpublic's bespoke division, GM Mediaworks.

ZenithOptimedia hasn't done badly either. Three weeks ago, it won L'Oreal on a pan-European basis and last week it scooped the pounds 70 million European media account for the luxury goods conglomerate Richemont.

Media has been the driver of Publicis Groupe's recent revenue growth and it is a strong and apparently growing contributor to the bottom line.

Whichever way you look at it, the two Publicis-owned media networks are very strong.

This, despite the fact that, compared with its rivals, Publicis has apparently being doing less to coordinate the activities of its media networks. WPP's Group M, Omnicom's OPera and IPG's Magna, all exist to provide a central resource and to conduct extra levels of negotiation with media owners.