Obama keeps newspaper reporters at arm’s length

“Entertainment Tonight” scored one last year. The New York Times did not.

“The View” has gotten several. The Washington Post hasn’t had one in years.

Albuquerque radio station KOB-FM’s “Morning Mayhem” crew interviewed him in August. The last time the Wall Street Journal did so was in 2009.

America’s newspapers have trouble enough these days, what with shrinking ad revenue and straying readers. But the daily print-and-pixel press also hasn’t gotten much love lately from the biggest newsmaker in the business: President Obama.

When Obama does media interviews these days, it’s not with a newspaper. TV gets the bulk of the president’s personal attention, from his frequent appearances on “60 Minutes” to MTV to chitchats with local stations around the country. Magazines — including the New Republic, which recently landed an interview conducted by its owner, Facebook co-founder and former Obama campaign operative Chris Hughes — are a distant second, followed by radio.

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White House officials “have been fairly clear that broadcast interviews are a more valuable venue for them,” said David Lauter, Washington bureau chief of the Tribune Co.’s newspaper group, which includes the Los Angeles Times, Baltimore Sun, Chicago Tribune and Orlando Sentinel. “We’ve had several conversations with them during the campaign. .?.?. Ultimately, their feeling was, if it doesn’t have a broadcast component, they’re not very interested.”

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But Dee Dee Myers, President Bill Clinton’s first press secretary, said Obama’s lack of interest in newspapers also reflects a changing media ecosystem. “Newspapers increasingly reach smaller audiences,” she said. What’s more, “they’re edited. You have a lot less control” over the message.

full: http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/obama-keeps-newspaper-reporters-at-arms-length/2013/02/10/3638c5ae-7082-11e2-ac36-3d8d9dcaa2e2_singlePage.html

KKOB-FM interview: http://www.kobfm.com/common/page.php?pt=Morning+Mayhem+Talks+to+President+Obama&id=271&is_corp=0

Washington Post's last sit-down interview with the president was on July 23, 2009, as an online video supplement to a print article. Myers is right about the "changing media ecosystem": people are more likely to pay attention to an interview with Obama or any public figure if there's an audio/visual component rather than just in print.