Social Networking For Socialists

Does the socialist vanguard of the proletariat really need to publish a newspaper or would they be better served building an online presence to mobilize the masses? Putting it another way, are socialist newspaper publishers immune to the decline affecting the bourgeois capitalist printed media industry?

At Shiraz Socialist, they make a compelling case for the left to ditch the old ways:

A standard method for recruitment, one that has remained unchanged since prior to the Russian Revolution in 1917, is that of publishing a newspaper and selling it. The acceptance for the need of the newspaper to spread ideas about the party and the revolution is unquestioned. The party is as wedded to the newspaper as a heroin addict to a syringe. Arguably more so: heroin addicts have been known to break their addiction.
 

Despite the fact that sales of national newspapers have been in a substantial decline, AWL have made the flabbergasting decision to increase the frequency of distribution.
 

Last night it appeared accepted by the majority that the revolution could not happen by anarchists on Twitter, those dubbed “Anarcho-Tweeters” by Laurie Penny. A vanguard party was needed for, if nothing else, to produce placards for demonstrations. I do not wish to discuss the need for a vanguard party, but simply whether the vanguard party needs a newspaper.