UPDATE Sean Spicer resigned as press secretary Friday morning, telling President Trump he vehemently disagreed with his choice for a new communications director.

Less than a month into the Trump administration, Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, was already upending some of the longstanding traditions surrounding the nearly daily press conference with Washington reporters.

Who Sits Where

Click or pinch to zoom. Reporters highlighted were called on at the Feb. 7 briefing.

Photograph of the briefing room on Feb. 7 by Doug Mills/The New York Times

The 49 seats in the photo above (and chart below) have been assigned by the independent White House Correspondents’ Association since 1981, largely because administrations of both parties wanted to avoid the appearance of favoritism.

The briefings in the first few weeks of the Trump administration have been packed, with many reporters who do not have assigned seats standing in the aisles or sitting in empty chairs.

Boston Globe/ BBC Dallas Morning News Talk Radio News Service Scripps/ BuzzFeed FT/ Guardian CBN Roll Call Row 7 Media News/ Daily Beast Christian Science Monitor Salem Radio Network Wash. Examiner Dow Jones Sirius Yahoo 6 Chicago Sun Times/ Al Jazeera New York Post Real Clear Politics NY Daily News Hearst TIME Bloomberg BNA 5 Voice of America National Journal Washington Times Foreign pool FOX Radio The Hill MSNBC 4 American Urban Radio Network ABC Radio USA Today Tribune Politico McClatchy AFP 3 New York Times Washington Post CBS Radio Wall St. Journal AP Radio NPR Bloomberg 2 1 CNN Reuters ABC AP CBS FOX NBC Spicer Talk Radio News Service Scripps/ Buzz Feed Boston Globe/ BBC CBN Roll Call Dallas Morning News FT/ Guardian Media News/ Daily Beast Dow Jones Christian Science Monitor Sirius Salem Radio Network Yahoo Wash. Exam- iner Chicago Sun Times/ Al Jazeera NY Daily News Real Clear Politics New York Post TIME Bloom- berg BNA Hearst National Journal VOA FOX Radio The Hill Wash. Times MSNBC Foreign pool Amer. Urban Radio ABC Radio Tribune Politico McClat- chy USA Today AFP AP Radio New York Times Wash. Post NPR Bloom- berg CBS Radio Wall St. Journal CNN Reuters ABC AP CBS FOX NBC Spicer Boston Globe/ BBC Dallas Morning News Talk Radio News Service Scripps/ BuzzFeed FT/ Guardian CBN Roll Call Media News/ Daily Beast Salem Radio Network Christian Science Monitor Dow Jones Wash. Examiner Sirius Yahoo Chicago Sun Times/ Al Jazeera New York Post New York Daily News Real Clear Politics Bloomberg BNA Hearst TIME Voice of America National Journal Washington Times Foreign pool FOX Radio The Hill MSNBC American Urban Radio Network ABC Radio USA Today Tribune Politico McClatchy AFP New York Times Washington Post CBS Radio Wall St. Journal AP Radio NPR Bloomberg CNN Reuters ABC AP CBS FOX NBC Spicer

Who Gets Called On First

In the past, White House press secretaries tended to prioritize the reporters sitting in the first two rows.

They would give the first question to The Associated Press (after decades of starting with Helen Thomas, long known as the dean of the White House press corps). Then it was on to the major networks, newspapers and other wire services.

Mr. Spicer has bypassed this convention.

As he goes around the room, Mr. Spicer typically calls on media organizations outside the mainstream before getting to more traditional news outlets.

“There are voices and issues that the mainstream media sometimes doesn’t capture, and it’s important for those issues to get as much prominence as some of the mainstream ones,” Mr. Spicer said in an interview with Sean Hannity of Fox News in late January.

The first briefing question of Mr. Spicer’s tenure went to a New York Post reporter who wrote a book that was critical of Bill and Hillary Clinton. LifeZette, a website founded by the radio host Laura Ingraham, was first in the second briefing.

Reporters from conservative outlets like Breitbart, One America News Network and Newsmax are regularly tapped for questions.

Mr. Spicer also calls on non-mainstream outlets that may be more critical of the Trump administration, including American Urban Radio Networks, a minority-owned radio station, and Telemundo, Univision and other Spanish-language news outlets.

A comparison of Mr. Spicer’s first three briefings with the first three by Robert Gibbs, a press secretary under President Barack Obama, shows how things have shifted.

Row 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 No Assigned Seat First Briefing Gibbs, 2009 Associated Press CBS News NBC News ABC News CNN Spicer, 2017 New York Post Christian Broadcasting Univision Fox Business American Urban Radio Second Briefing Gibbs, 2009 Associated Press Reuters Unidentified CBS News ABC News Spicer, 2017 LifeZette USA Today Reuters Breitbart ABC News Third Briefing Gibbs, 2009 Associated Press NBC News Reuters ABC News CNN Spicer, 2017 Washington Times Telemundo Daily Mail Politico Washington Examiner

Other New Voices in the Briefing Room

Mr. Spicer has also awarded first questions to reporters in the new “Skype seats” that appear on two large flat-screens on either side of the lectern, including one to the CBS affiliate in his native Rhode Island. In addition to local TV networks, Skype seats have gone to conservative radio hosts and a Kentucky newspaper publisher.

Mr. Spicer with the first four “Skype seat” participants. Stephen Crowley/The New York Times

Mr. Spicer routinely reaches out to the foreign news media (though so far not for the first question). Raghubir Goyal, who says he is affiliated with the news organization India Globe and whose tendency to veer off topic has been used by previous secretaries to defuse tense moments, has been called on twice.

Live, From Washington

Melissa McCarthy, donning an ill-fitting suit, mocked Mr. Spicer’s habit of chain-chewing cinnamon gum, his scolding of the press, and the flap over the news media’s — and Mr. Trump’s — use of the word “ban” to describe an executive order.

The sketch devolved into Ms. McCarthy using the lectern to literally attack a reporter, and using a water gun filled with soapy water to wash out a reporter’s “lying mouth.” It didn’t go over too well in the White House, Politico reported.