Wahington Press Corps Metamorphosis

Change.

President Barack Obama promised it in his new administration.

News outlets are going through a lot of it themselves in this digital age and crumbling economy.

And according to a recently-released Pew Research Center for Excellence in Journalism report, the Washington Press Corps is changing a lot too.

Simply, the mainstream media is shrinking in representation as niche and foreign press grow.

One only had to watch President Obama's recent press conference to see that. (And yes, the Huffington Post was there.)

But one thing that the Pew Research Center report doesn't say outright is that there may now be more people of color in that Press Corps.....perhaps that's what it meant by the term "niche".

I abhor that word. When a majority of this country's population is non-white, people of color should no longer be called a "niche"....but I digress.

Oakland Tribune's Tammerlin Drummond takes on this new administration and new, more colorful White House Press Corps in a recent column. (....but kudos to some mainstream press for having representatives of color.) While she doesn't offer up any numbers, one only had to watch the press conference to see that there were more colored folks up in the mix.

Like Drummond, I too know what it's like to be the "fly in the buttermilk" ---at school, in my newsroom and even in the White House Press Corps.

As an intern for The Boston Globe's Washington Bureau, I once got the opportunity to go to the White House and be in the Press Corps for the day. For the most part, it was a lot of waiting around, but as I waited, I observed and I was a triple minority: young, black and a woman.

Hopefully this trend of more inclusion will continue.