President Obama took to the East Room stage again last night to discuss the economy, and specifically his budget proposal currently before Congress.  Primetime press conferences are an ace that only president’s can play.  Who else can convince network and cable TV to preempt huge hits like Biggest Loser and American Idol?  (Unless Ross Perot pays for the time, of course.) 

One of the big things that struck me last night was that Obama didn’t call on a single print reporter.  One such reporter that was in the room last night commented to me how things have changed.  In the Obama world, an equal effort is being made to interact with smaller papers, websites and blogs.  The Bush White House did the same, but would tend to so on an individual basis, away from the kleig lights of a primetime presser. (See exit interviews with Human Events, RealClearPolitics, etc.)

In Obama’s first foray into the East Room last month, he called on Huffington Post - a blog run by Arianna Huffington.  Last night, he took a question from Stars & Stripes on the military. 

Wouldn’t it make more sense to call on the bigs (NBC, ABC, FOX, etc.) and leave the little ones at bay?  Not necessarily.  You’re already playing to a nationwide audience of millions.  When choosing whom to do a one-on-one interview with Team Obama still chooses the bigs.  Obama sat down with 60 Minutes last week, and has done interviews with NBC and others.  But on the large stage of the East Room, reaching into the niches of our world is a huge communications advantage.

You can bet that Stars and Stripes will ask about the military.  The Spanish language outlet that Obama called on last night was surely going to ask about the drug trafficking problem at the border.  It’s easier to control the message and ensure that you talk about important policy initiatives that otherwise might not come up by calling on these folks.

Unfortunately, when you do that, some people get left out.  There was no NY Times, USA Today or Washington Post questions last night. (UPDATE: But Jon Ward of The Washington Times DID get called on. Apologies to @jonwardeleven for spacing on that when first writing this post)  ABC Radio was called on - no radio correspondents got the nod last time.  It’s another sign that the media is evolving.  The days are increasingly numbered for print papers at your local newstand.  With Twitter, Drudge, Yahoo! News, IPods, etc. news is traveling faster than ever - and evolving more and more each day.