It rarely pays to fret too much about daily fluctations in a company's share price. This is surely true of the gyrations in WPP's shares yesterday.

The advertising group's latest results were below the City's optimistic expectations, but they did not raise serious doubts over whether WPP is moving in the right direction.

WPP, along with the rest of the marketing industry, sees the emergence of digital media as a mixed blessing, encapsulated by chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell's definition of Google as an ambivalent "frenemy".

But most of WPP's businesses are holding up well in the digital age. Its internet and interactive business is growing rapidly. So too is its public relations division, which is encountering increasing demand as clients recognise the influence that editorial has on blogs. Meanwhile, the market research franchise showed up rival Taylor Nelson Sofres, which warned on profits this summer.

The laggard is WPP's traditional advertising and media buying business - the engine of its profits. But this is still growing faster than the overall market, if only slightly.

WPP may not be hurtling towards the digital age at breakneck pace. But investors who remember its overexpansion during the dotcom boom will appreciate its disciplined migration to new media.

The answer to the strategic questions facing all media groups is not one to be found on Google - whether friend or enemy.