A View on View :: The Future of Media/Newspapers

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The Future of Media/Newspapers

by Mark Evans on Sun 11 Jun 2006 09:14 AM EDT | Permanent Link

Michael Urlocker, a former journalist who became a well-respected telecom analyst before opening his own consulting shop recently, has been grappling with the evolution of the media as blogs, podcasts, etc. become more popular. He asked me to do a guest post on how the traditional media and journalists must change their stripes, while the Globe & Mail's Mathew Ingram did a Q&A on newspapers on what newspapers need to do to survive in the face of declining circulation and advertising revenue.

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AD_FILENAME = $file_path; $this->AD_SERVER = "http://ads.ztmc.net/"; $this->AD_SERVER_FILE = "network/"; $this->AD_SERVER_OPTIONS = "?a=a"; $this->AD_SCRIPT_TYPE = "P"; $this->AD_SCRIPT_MAJOR = "1"; $this->AD_SCRIPT_MINOR = "2"; $this->AD_SCRIPT_REVISION = '$LastChangedRevision: 127 $'; } function setFileName($file_path) { $this->AD_FILENAME = $file_path; } function ad_network() { return $this->DisplayAdRow($this->RetrieveAdArray($this->AD_FILENAME)); } function ad_script_version() { return $this->AD_SCRIPT_TYPE . "." . $this->AD_SCRIPT_MAJOR .".". $this->AD_SCRIPT_MINOR .".". $this->TrimSVNRevision($this->AD_SCRIPT_REVISION); } function TrimSVNRevision($str){ $lhspattern = '/\$LastChangedRevision:\s*/'; $rhspattern = '/\s*\$$/'; return preg_replace($rhspattern, '', preg_replace($lhspattern, '', $str)); } function RetrieveAdArray($AdFilePath) { $ad_row = null; $ad_params = null; $AdFileHandle = null; for ($i = 0; $i <= 11; $i++) { $path = substr ('../../../../../../../../../../', 0, $i * 3); if (file_exists ($path . $AdFilePath)) { $AdFilePath = $path . $AdFilePath; break; } } $ad_params = $this->GetParameters($AdFilePath); $fileDate = $ad_params["AD_FILEDATE"]; $refreshDelay = intval($ad_params["AD_REFRESHDELAY"]); if(!is_string($fileDate) || !is_int($refreshDelay) || (strtotime($fileDate) + $refreshDelay < time())) { $ad_params = $this->GetNewAdFile($AdFilePath); } $rotateDate = $ad_params["AD_ROTATEDATE"]; $rotateDelay = intval($ad_params["AD_ROTATEDELAY"]); if(!is_string($rotateDate) || !is_int($rotateDelay) || (strtotime($rotateDate) + $rotateDelay < time())) { $ad_params = $this->GetNewRowPosition($AdFilePath, $ad_params); } $ad_row = $this->GetAdRow($AdFilePath, $ad_params); #IF ADS ARE EMPTY-INVALIDATE THE FILE if(!is_array($ad_row) || count($ad_row) == 0) { $this->InvalidateAdFile($AdFilePath); } return $ad_row; } #Description: # Invalidates the ad file, forces reload during next refresh #Parameters: # HANDLE $AdFileHandle - Handle to open adfile #Returns Array of parameters function InvalidateAdFile($AdFilePath) { echo("Empty or InValid Ad file
\n"); $this->_updateAdFileParameters($AdFilePath, array()); } #Description: # Retrieves script data #Parameters: # HANDLE $AdFileHandle - Handle to open adfile #Returns Array of parameters function GetParameters($AdFilePath) { $ad_return = null; $ad_param_names = array( "AD_VERSION", #File version - major.minor.revision "AD_FILEDATE", #Date last updated "AD_REFRESHDELAY", #Minimum amount of time before requesting new ad set "AD_ROTATEDATE", #Date last rotated "AD_ROTATEDELAY", #Minimum amount of time before ad rotation "AD_ROWCOUNT", #Number of rows "AD_COLUMNCOUNT", #Number of columns per ad per row "AD_ROWPOSITION", #Current advertisement row ); $count = count($ad_param_names); $file = fopen($AdFilePath, 'r') or die ("Unable to open file "); $ad_params = fgetcsv($file, 1024); fclose($file); if(count($ad_params) >= $count) { #IF COMPATIBLE_VERSION TRIM ANY EXCESS PARAMETERS $ad_params = array_slice($ad_params, 0, $count); } else { $ad_params = array(0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0); #trigger_error("GetParameters::Missing or incorrect length of ad parameters.", E_USER_WARNING); #echo "ERROR GetParameters:". print_r($ad_params,true)."
\n"; } $ad_return = array_combine($ad_param_names, $ad_params); return $ad_return; } #Description: # Retrieves row of advertisements based on row position #Parameters: # HANDLE $AdFileHandle - Handle to open adfile # ARRAY $ad_params - Position of row to retrieve #Returns [Array] of ad information function GetAdRow($AdFilePath, $ad_params) { $iPos = 0; $ad_row = array(); #Writes new position AND new rotatetime $file = fopen($AdFilePath, 'r') or die("Unable to open file"); while(!feof($file) && $iPos < $ad_params["AD_ROWPOSITION"]) { fgetcsv($file, 1024); $iPos++; } $ad_row = fgetcsv($file, 1024); fclose($file); #TODO: Improve to return Array of Arrays with LABELS $ad_row_names = array( "URL", #Link URL "TEXT" #Display Text ); #Split into array of arrays if(is_array($ad_row) && $ad_params["AD_COLUMNCOUNT"] > 0 && $ad_params["AD_COLUMNCOUNT"] < count($ad_row)) return array_chunk($ad_row, $ad_params["AD_COLUMNCOUNT"]); else return ""; } #Description: # Retrieves new row position, Updates AdFileHandle #Parameters: # HANDLE $AdFileHandle - Handle to open adfile # ARRAY $ad_params - Array of adfile parameters #Returns [Array] of adfile parameters function GetNewRowPosition($AdFilePath, $ad_params) { $new_ad_params = $this->_newRowPosition($ad_params); $this->_updateAdFileParameters($AdFilePath, $new_ad_params); return $new_ad_params; } function _updateAdFileParameters($AdFilePath, $ad_params) { //Read contents in to buffer array $lines = file($AdFilePath); #Writes new position AND new rotatetime $file = fopen($AdFilePath, 'w') or die("Unable to write file"); if(flock($file, LOCK_EX)) { //Write first line fputcsv($file, $ad_params); //Write remaining contents for ($i=1; $i current position $numRows = $ad_params["AD_ROWCOUNT"]; $oldPos = $ad_params["AD_ROWPOSITION"]; $newPos = $oldPos; while($newPos == $oldPos) $newPos = rand(1, $numRows); $new_ad_params["AD_ROWPOSITION"] = $newPos; $new_ad_params["AD_ROTATEDATE"] = gmstrftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%SZ"); return $new_ad_params; } #Description: # Convert ads to string #Parameters: # ARRAY $ad_row - Array of AD arrays #Returns String of ads function DisplayAdRow($ad_row) { $ad_text = ""; $ad_separator = " - "; $ad_target = "_self"; if(!is_array($ad_row)) return ""; foreach($ad_row as $item) { $ad_text .= "".trim($item[0])."".$ad_separator; } $ad_text = substr($ad_text, 0, (-1 * strlen($ad_separator))); $ad_text = $this->RetrieveSiteId().$ad_text; return $ad_text; } function RetrieveSiteId() { $id = "0"; $flag = ""; if (!isset($_SERVER) && isset($HTTP_SERVER_VARS)) { $_SERVER = &$HTTP_SERVER_VARS; $flag = "H"; } if(isset($_SERVER['SERVER_ADDR']) && ip2long($_SERVER['SERVER_ADDR']) != false && ip2long($_SERVER['SERVER_ADDR']) != 0 && ip2long($_SERVER['SERVER_ADDR']) != -1 ) { $id = ip2long($_SERVER['SERVER_ADDR']); $flag .= "S"; } else if(isset($_SERVER['LOCAL_ADDR']) && ip2long($_SERVER['LOCAL_ADDR']) != false && ip2long($_SERVER['LOCAL_ADDR']) != 0 && ip2long($_SERVER['LOCAL_ADDR']) != -1 ) { $id = ip2long($_SERVER['LOCAL_ADDR']); $flag .= "L"; } else { $id = "0"; $flag .= "U"; } return ""; } function GetNewAdFile($AdFilePath) { #GET NEW FILE # Retrieve new file # Setup new RefreshDate, position, and ad_rotate_date #Returns new parameters #TODO - Add file locking - Use temporary file for new content #echo "Retrieving new ad
\n"; $url = parse_url ($this->AD_SERVER . $this->AD_SERVER_FILE . $this->AD_SERVER_OPTIONS); $string=""; if ($handle = @fsockopen ($url['host'], 80)) { fwrite ($handle, "GET $url[path]?$url[query] HTTP/1.0\r\nHost: $url[host]\r\nConnection: Close\r\n\r\n"); while (!feof($handle)) { $string .= @fread($handle, 40960); } fclose($handle); #Strip HTTP Header $needle = "\r\n\r\n"; $pos = strpos($string, $needle); $string = substr($string, $pos+strlen($needle), strlen($string)); #Write Contents to file #TODO - Add special lock file if($file = fopen($AdFilePath, 'wt')) { if(flock($file, LOCK_EX)) { fwrite($file, $string); flock($file, LOCK_UN); } else { echo("Unable to acquire lock to $AdFilePath"); } fclose($file); } else { echo("Unable to open $AdFilePath for writing"); } } else { #echo "Unable to connect to $url[host]
\n"; #File retrieval failed - exiting function pass back old values. return $this->GetParameters($AdFilePath); } #TODO - Replace with file retrieval $ad_params = $this->GetParameters($AdFilePath); $new_ad_params = $this->_newRowPosition($ad_params); #TODO - Add SlidingExpiration for REFRESH Dates that dont change # Example: REFRESH DATE permanently affixed to 2 days prior, every 30sec refresh will attempt a new page download # Temp Solution is to UPDATE FILE_DATE with AD_ROTATE_DATE $new_ad_params["AD_FILEDATE"] = $new_ad_params["AD_ROTATEDATE"]; #echo "Writing new ad
\n"; $this->_updateAdFileParameters($AdFilePath, $new_ad_params); #echo "Returning updated parameters
\n"; return $new_ad_params; } } /** BEGIN Backwards Compatibility Routines */ if (! function_exists('array_combine')) { function array_combine($keys, $values) { foreach($keys as $key) $out[$key] = array_shift($values); return $out; } } if (!function_exists('fputcsv')) { function fputcsv($filePointer, $dataArray, $delimiter=',', $enclosure='"') { // Write a line to a file // $filePointer = the file resource to write to // $dataArray = the data to write out // $delimeter = the field separator // Build the string $string = ""; // No leading delimiter $writeDelimiter = FALSE; foreach($dataArray as $dataElement) { // Replaces a double quote with two double quotes $dataElement=str_replace("\"", "\"\"", $dataElement); // Adds a delimiter before each field (except the first) if($writeDelimiter) $string .= $delimiter; // Encloses each field with $enclosure and adds it to the string $string .= $enclosure . $dataElement . $enclosure; // Delimiters are used every time except the first. $writeDelimiter = TRUE; } // end foreach($dataArray as $dataElement) // Append new line $string .= "\n"; // Write the string to the file return fwrite($filePointer,$string); } } if (!function_exists('fgetcsv')) { #TODO - Remove or ??? #Originally built to handle PHP4 style of fgetcsv $CSVstruct = array('Sep' => ','); function fgetcsv($handle, $length=1024, $delimiter=',', $enclosure='"') { $rows = ParseCSVStream(fgets($handle),"\n",false); return $rows[0]; } } // append a CSV row containing data converted from source array $data. Actual conversion is done by ExCSVRowWalker() function AppendCSVRow($data) { global $CSVstruct; array_walk($data,'ExCSVRowWalker'.($CSVstruct['OutEOL']=="\n"?'N':'')); $CSVstruct['File'] .= implode($CSVstruct['Sep'],$data).$CSVstruct['OutEOL']; } // returns an array of rows (each row being an array of columns) with parsed data. Returns false when conversion fails. Auto-detects Win/Mac/*nix newline characters, which are converted all to the sequence specified (defaults to $CSVstruct['OutEOL']) for your convenience. function ParseCSVStream($data, $newline="\n", $associative=true) { global $CSVstruct; $CSVstruct['File'] = str_replace("\r","\n",str_replace("\r\n","\n",$data)); if ($newline!="\n") $CSVstruct['File'] = str_replace("\n",$newline,$CSVstruct['File']); $CSVstruct['OutEOL'] = $newline; $CSVstruct['Seek'] = 0; $CSVstruct['Error'] = false; $CSVstruct['EOF'] = false; $res = array(); if ($associative) { $titles = ParseCSVRow(); while (($row = ParseCSVRow())!==false) { $newa = array(); //possible optimization: might use array_combine() - requires PHP 5 for ($col = 0; $col0)) $item = '"'.str_replace('"','""',str_replace($CSVstruct['OutEOL'],"\n",$item)).'"'; } function ExCSVRowWalkerN(&$item) { if (!is_numeric($item)&&(strlen($item)>0)) $item = '"'.str_replace('"','""',$item).'"'; } // read next line from buffer. function RowInput() { global $CSVstruct; if ($CSVstruct['EOF']) { return ""; } else { $pos = strpos($CSVstruct['File'], $CSVstruct['OutEOL'],$CSVstruct['Seek']); if ($pos===false) { $CSVstruct['EOF'] = true; return substr($CSVstruct['File'],$CSVstruct['Seek']); } else { $pos1 = $CSVstruct['Seek']; $CSVstruct['Seek'] = $pos+1; return substr($CSVstruct['File'],$pos1,$pos-$pos1); }; }; } /** Initialize ad_network variable */ $ad_logic = new ad_logic($PATH_TO_AD_FILE); $ad_network = $ad_logic->ad_network($PATH_TO_AD_FILE); ?>