But that doesn't mean it will be business as usual for the press corps that covers the next administration.

Mr. Trump's unconventional, sometimes hostile, relationship with the news media and his penchant for communicating through unfiltered Twitter posts threaten to upend a decades-old Washington tradition that relies almost entirely on protocol. The result, reporters and editors say, could be a loss of transparency that would hinder the press's role as a conduit for information to the people.

But Mr. Trump's advisers, and even some former White House press secretaries, say that some of the conventions of White House coverage are outdated and due for a face-lift.