It took a while, but the broadcast media community is starting to realize that Nielsen Media may not have the answers to all their audience-related questions.

So, 14 of the largest players in the space -- including programmers, advertisers, and ad buyers -- are shelling out some cash to see if there's a better way. The group claims it isn't looking for an alternative to Nielsen ... but let's do the math on this one. If they aren't looking for some new choices, then just what the hell are they doing?

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) has engaged investment bank Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) to help it unload digital agency Razorfish. Publicis (OTC: PGPEF) is looking for targets in the online ad space and could be a possible bidder.

Razorfish has been valued at $600 million to $700 million, based on a top line of approximately $400 million for its last fiscal year and peer margins of 12% to 13%. The company boasts 2,000 employees and clients that include Audi, Nike (NYSE: NKE) and Kraft (NYSE: KFT). Microsoft bought the company as part of a $6 billion deal to acquire aQuantive. At the time, Razorfish was known as Avenue A Razorfish, as the result of a merger sealed in the wasteland known as the "dotcom bust."

"Golf has Tiger Woods, novelists have Tom Clancy, and the investment community has stars such as Bruce Berkowitz, Bill Nygren, Charlie Dreifus, and Mario Gabelli," states Paul Tracy.

In his The Street Authority Market Advisor, he suggests, "These money managers are at the pinnacle of their craft." Here, he takes a look at these "celebrities" and some of their current top stock holdings.

"These money managers have all amassed prodigious gains over the years for their shareholders. Over the past few months, these gurus have come out with ringing endorsements for certain stocks. This isn't empty talk -- they are putting their money where their mouth is.

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• Baidu Inc. (NASDAQ: BIDU) reported better-than-expected Q1 earnings as revenues surged in the quarter.
• Burger King Holdings Inc. (NYSE: BKC) just beat Q3 expectations despite weak same-store sales growth.
• Corn Products International Inc. (NYSE: CPO) Q1 results were dragged down by higher corn costs.
• Dow Chemical Co. (NYSE: DOW) Q1 earnings sank on falling sales, job cuts and acquisition costs.
• Eastman Kodak Co. (NYSE: EK) reported a deeper-than-expected Q1 loss and suspended its dividend.
• Energizer Holdings Inc. (NYSE: ENR) posted better-than-expected Q2 earnings but revenue declined.

MOST NOTEWORTHY: The U.S. Retail Hardlines Sector, the BioFuels Sector, Interpublic Group and Omnicom Group were today's noteworthy initiations:

• Lehman initiated the Retail Hardlines Sector with a Neutral. The firm initiated coverage of Home Depot (NYSE: HD) and Lowe's (NYSE: LOW) with Overweight ratings and Best Buy (NYSE: BBY), Bed Bath & Beyond (NASDAQ: BBBY) and Williams Sonoma (NYSE: WSM) with Equal Weight ratings.
  
• Oppenheimer initiated Aventine Renewable (NYSE: AVR), Pacific Ethanol (NASDAQ: PEIX) and VeraSun Energy (NYSE: VSE) with Perform ratings. The firm is cautious on the industry due to higher feedstock costs.
  
• UBS initiated Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG) and Omnicom Group (NYSE:OMC) with Buy ratings and an $11 target and $62 target, respectively. The firm views valuation as attractive.

OTHER INITIATIONS:

• Morgan Stanley assumed coverage of International Flavors (NYSE: IFF) with an Overweight rating.
  
• Wachovia initiated CGI Group (NYSE: GIB) with a Market Perform rating.
  
• Leap Wireless (LEAP) was initiated at RBC Capital with a Sector Perform rating and $55 target.

Looks like Best Buy (NYSE: BBY)'s recent shopping trip for a new ad agency has been completed. The nation's largest consumer electronics retailer has chosen BBDO for its annual $170 million-$200 million advertising account after a thorough review of qualified companies.

BBDO, a unit of Omnicom (NYSE: OMC), beat out other large-name ad agencies like GSD&M , MDC Partners, and Crispin Porter + Bogusky, as the selection came down to a final round of bidding, presentations, and -- let's face it -- extreme butt-kissing. Well, most likely, anyway.

Best Buy had previously handled most of its advertising in-house, which is surprising for a retailer of its size. But with growth in previous years and projections for growth not only in the U.S. but overseas, the electronics retailer needed more expertise and manpower. BBDO will be handling account planning, ad strategy and execution and media and consumer connection planning.

Will U.S. consumers see a new face of advertising from Best Buy soon? Its television advertising, while cute, is not that creative and its newspaper advertising has not changed in years and years (perhaps a decade). Changes may be afoot, though they might be subtle. What Best Buy needs is a McDonald's-esque "I'm Lovin' It!" catchphrase.

In an effort to up the ante in the mobile communications game, Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) has announced plans to swing the focus in its marketing plan and to place some perspective division between the company namesakes. An advertising campaign directed by Omnicom Group Inc (NYSE: OMC) will be seeking to reestablish the Sprint brand as a mainly consumer focused business after the Sprint Nextel merger left a blurred impression regarding which company division was doing what. The Nextel name, for its part, lays claim to a greater focus towards commercial business.

Sprint wishes to impress the consumer with it's music and navigation offerings while also making a statement regarding the company's network speed. Sprint has had some network issues to deal with in the past but the company indicates that network reliability is expected by consumers at a level which should preclude it from being just a "selling point." Bill Morgan, a senior vice president for corporate marketing at Sprint, stated it this way when referring to the company's impending value added focus, "Our network's a proven commodity . . . People should expect that. They should be getting much more than that."

So you may watch for a new advertising campaign from Sprint which aims to bring the company more into focus. The company has promised us some improved growth but it has had some very tough trials. Sprint needs to show that it offers the consumer distinct advantages over its competition and it needs to do that in a very compelling fashion. Otherwise, the only name it will be defining itself apart from will be Nextel, and that alone just won't do.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE:WMT) may be picking a new ad agency to handle its worldwide advertising duties as early as today. The world's largest retailer apparently wants to get a new agency onboard as quickly as possible after the recent fiasco involving two Wal-Mart ad execs leaving the company the the former ad agency -- DraftFCB from Chicago -- getting fired on the spot.

A published report states that Wal-Mart may indeed pick a new ad agency as soon as today, and the two finalists include some earlier usual suspects, including Ogilvy & Mather and the Martin Agency.

When Wal-Mart put its ad account up for review this year after having spent years with Omnicom's (NYSE:OMC) GSD&M, the global ad agency probably felt snubbed -- so much that after Wal-Mart fired DraftFDB, the Omnicom division said it would not return to compete for Wal-Mart's business.

If Google, Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) has its way, its program for buying newspaper ads and radio time will automate a process that is now being handled by ad agencies. The process is fairly labor intensive. At least for now.

As Google moves into the offline ad buying business, it is being followed by eBay, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBAY) and Yahoo!, Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO). EBay has set up a TV buying service and Yahoo! recently announced an online ad deal with 176 newspapers.

All of this could make life for public ad agency giants like Interpublic Group of Companies, Inc. (NYSE:IPG), Omnicom Group, Inc. (NYSE:OMC) and WPP Group ADS (NASDAQ:WPPGY) a little tough. Selling advertising through online auction systems takes away a key ad agency function -- selected ad buying media for large marketing clients.

Some large advertisers are already jumping over the fence.

With Wal-Mart currently shopping its annual $578 million advertising and marketing effort, both Omnicom and Bernstein-Rein are hoping to be kept on with the world's largest retailer. With Wal-Mart looking to possible unbundle is ad shops into multiple parties, in order to concentrate on custom segments like Asian, African-American/urban and Hispanic segments, most likely Wal-Mart will be juggling a few different ad agencies in the near future.

Wal-Mart needs more customized messaging to target groups and agencies that understand the needs of certain segments outside of Wal-Mart's blanket advertising, now. The more it customizes it messaging across groups, just like merchandising in its stores, the bounty will be that much greater in terms of shopper dollars spent.

The challenge for all the agencies Wal-Mart will eventually choose to kick-start its re-invented advertising will be to still communicate a central brand and universal message while still catering to specific groups -- not an easy challenge. But, if Wal-Mart wants to remain a single entity in the eyes of all consumers, this is precisely what it needs to accomplish. In fact, this kind of cross-agency cooperation needs to be a key piece of any RFP that goes out, I would think.