• by Joe Mandese , June 5, 2007

GroupM, the media investment management arm of London-based WPP Group, generated $4.361 billion in net new media billings during 2006, according to the company's annual report. The report did not delineate revenues for Group M, which oversees the MindShare, Mediaedge:cia, MediaCom and Maxus media networks, but the company reported that revenues for its advertising and media investment management operations - which also include full-service shops like JWT, Ogilvy & Mather, Y&R and Grey - grew 4% during 2006 on a like-for-like basis.

The combined operating margin for WPP's agencies was 15.8%, up slightly from 15.6% during 2005. The ad and media unit's 2006 margins were greater than WPP as a whole (14.5%), or peer agency holding companies listed in the WPP report, including Omnicom (13.4%) and Interpublic (2.8%).

WPP also disclosed that founder and chairman Martin Sorrell's base salary would rise to 1 million pounds, or about $2 million this year, an increase of 19% since Sorrell's last raise in 1999.

The report did not break out the executive compensation for any of Group M's managers, but its previous annual report disclosed that Group M Chairman-CEO Irwin Gotlieb earned a base salary of $750,000, a bonus of $684,000, other compensation and payouts from long-term compensation plans bringing his 2005 package to $4,277,000, likely making him the highest paid media executive on Madison Avenue that year.