Digital/Direct Marketing Now 25% of WPP Group In a first half earnings statement released this morning, WPP Group announced that digital and direct marketing-related services now comprise 25% of its body. WPP Group owns labels like 24/7 Real Media, Mediaedge:cia, MediaCom, Mindshare, GroupM and Outrider. Digital and direct garnered $1.7 billion in revenues in the first half of ‘09, with a projected annual run rate of nearly $3.5 billion total. But it is digital media and advertising that appear to be dominating the segment.

An adverter-wooing study commissioned by Comedy Central — so, at least a little skepticism is allowed here — says that more than 20 percent of TDS and Colbert Report fans say “people think I’m cool because I watch [those shows],” according to the New York Times. Here’s where I’d make my “then call me Miles Davis” joke, except I’m afraid making a Billy Madison reference will strip me of whatever illusory coolness points I’ve earned by seeing every episode ever of both TDS and The Report.I’m extremely reluctant to buy the idea that just watching a show (or a movie or whatever) can make you cool.

When I travelled around Mexico the first time, I went high into the mountains out of Chihuahua and into the Copper Canyon. This part of Mexico is very remote and very rough country. The Canyon itself is much larger than the famed Grand Canyon but have you heard of it? Hidden away in the area is the intriguing but very reclusive Tarahumara people. They live largely traditional lives although those lives are now, of course, mixed indelibly with a more mainstream existence.

Welcome back to Midweek Madness , in which Margaret and I search for the joy of good gossip inside Us , In Touch , Star , Ok! and Life & Style . Instead we find falsehoods and reported cosmetic procedures gone wrong. US “Kendra & Kourtney Talk Baby!” Everything you never wanted to know about these ladies, who are both due in December. Kendra found out she was pregnant in the bathroom of a baggage claim area in an airport.