NEW YORK So when did Twitter become a major factor for newspapers? Was it when The New York Times' main Twitter account reached 884,000 followers? When the Los Angeles Times added its 144th account? Or was it when both The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post were forced to issue new staff guidelines for this social media in a span of two days?

Try all of the above, and more. In just the past few weeks, newspapers are finding that Twitter is not to be ignored, even if some are not quite sure how to handle it. For most, the 140-character "tweets" are both a blessing and a curse. The blessing is that reporters and editors can promote links to Web stories and get news out in a matter of seconds, from the most remote locations. Even faster than a typical blogger on a laptop, Twitter zaps the quick messages out to the tens of thousands of "followers" that many newspapers have acquired in recent months.