It can be easy to forget that, two years ago, the White House press briefing took place nearly every day. The president refrained from insulting reporters on live television. And correspondents did not lose their access for showing insufficient “respect.”

That’s the thing about traditions — they tend to be sacrosanct until they aren’t.

The rituals of reporting on the White House, and the place of journalism in American life, continued to shift in 2018 under President Trump. On Twitter, he used the term “Fake News” 174 times, nearly once every two days.

Presidents usually hold a holiday reception for the Washington press corps (even Mr. Trump acquiesced to one in 2017); this year’s edition was canceled. Presidents usually avoid criticizing American journalists on foreign soil; visiting Britain, Mr. Trump called NBC News “dishonest” and refused to take a question from Jim Acosta of CNN. (“Music to the ears of dictators and authoritarian leaders,” said an official at the Committee to Protect Journalists.)

Mr. Trump is reinventing relations between the president and the press. Next year may reveal if the changes are a blip, or permanent.

The Briefing Vanishes …

When Sarah Huckabee Sanders approached her lectern on Dec. 18, it was the press secretary’s first appearance in the White House briefing room in three weeks. About 15 minutes later, she left the stage as reporters shouted questions.

The White House briefing has been criticized as a rote, futile exercise where journalists showboat for cameras and press aides dissemble. Supporters call it a symbol of transparency in government and a chance to force officials to defend their actions for the record.

Either way, the ritual is vanishing. Ms. Sanders has cut back on her lectern time. Now weeks can go by — hectic, news-saturated weeks — without reporters having a chance to ask questions. Mark Knoller, a CBS News reporter and the unofficial statistician of the White House press corps, counted 54 formal briefings in 2018, plus a few gaggles on Air Force One. In 2017, the number was roughly 100.

… While Trump Is Ubiquitous

Ms. Sanders and other Trump aides say briefings are less necessary because the president, unlike many of his predecessors, is eager to speak for himself. Indeed, to borrow a reporter’s quip about the former New York mayor Edward I. Koch, Mr. Trump was unavoidable for comment.

For a politician who calls the news media “the enemy of the people,” the president seems to relish interacting with it. Mr. Trump granted more than 70 interviews this year, to news outlets ranging from ABC News to “Bernie & Sid in the Morning” on WABC-AM, a local drive-time radio show. That tally does not include his impromptu remarks at photo-ops and Marine One departures, which on occasion stretched for nearly an hour.

He gave 30 interviews in October and November alone, not counting a pair of formal news conferences before and after the midterm elections. At the first of the two, Mr. Trump referred to a Kurdish journalist as “Mr. Kurd” and questioned the character of George Washington, musing, “Didn’t he have a couple things in his past?”

Hannity in the House

The president’s preferred venue, however, remained Fox News, whose prime-time and morning shows amounted to a Trump cheering section beamed into millions of homes. The cable network secured 18 interviews with the president this year; Fox Business had three more.

Journalists there have grumbled about the blurred line between the administration and some of the network’s star commentators. On the eve of the midterm elections, Sean Hannity rallied onstage with Mr. Trump in Missouri, high-fived the White House deputy chief of staff, Bill Shine — himself a former Fox News co-president — and jeered reporters in the auditorium as “fake news.” In 2010, Mr. Hannity was chastised by Fox News executives, including Mr. Shine, for scheduling an appearance at a Tea Party fund-raiser.

Fox News called the Missouri episode an “unfortunate distraction.”

Mr. Hannity also failed to tell viewers that he and Mr. Trump shared a lawyer, Michael D. Cohen. And this summer, the host campaigned in Florida for the Senate candidate Ron DeSantis, a frequent guest. Mr. DeSantis’s campaign manager, Brad Herold, boasted that Mr. Hannity would rally the crowd.

“I’m concerned, with Hannity and DeSantis at the same event, that Fox News may have to cancel its prime-time programming tonight,” Mr. Herold joked in an interview in July.

Insults and a Lawsuit

Other presidents sparred with the press. Mr. Trump makes it personal.

He called April Ryan of American Urban Radio Networks a “loser”; replied to Abby Phillip of CNN by saying, “You ask a lot of stupid questions”; dismissed a query from Yamiche Alcindor of PBS as “racist”; and told Cecilia Vega of ABC News, “You’re not thinking — you never do.” All four reporters are women of color.

Questioned about the president’s treatment of female reporters, Ms. Sanders said Mr. Trump treated them no differently from their male colleagues. (He has called Mr. Acosta “a rude, terrible person.”) Another reporter, Kaitlan Collins of CNN, was barred from a Rose Garden event after aides deemed her questions “inappropriate.”

The president also threatened to strip networks of their broadcast licenses and make it easier for journalists to be sued for libel. Complaining on Twitter about CNN, he floated “the possibility of the United States starting our own Worldwide Network to show the World the way we really are” — state TV.

Tensions reached a head last month when the administration revoked Mr. Acosta’s credentials, citing a bogus accusation about “placing his hands” on a White House intern. CNN sued, and his pass was restored. But the episode underscored how few of the privileges afforded to White House reporters, which can be crucial for their work, are formally protected.

Dangers and a New Reality

Threats to the press this year went beyond words. In January, a Michigan man was arrested after allegedly threatening to kill CNN employees in Atlanta. In October, a Trump supporter was charged with mailing pipe bombs to lawmakers and CNN’s New York newsroom, which was evacuated. Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist, was murdered by Saudi agents in Turkey.

In Maryland, five newspaper employees were killed in a shooting. The motivation was not believed to be political, but the attack led news organizations to tighten security measures. Press freedom groups have called this year among the most dangerous for journalists in recent memory.

The End of Comedy?

After the comedian Michelle Wolf delivered a searing set at this year’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, leaving the black-tie Washington crowd shaking their heads, Mr. Trump tweeted: “Put Dinner to rest, or start over!”

To an extent, his word has been heeded.

In an attempt by the correspondents’ group to refocus on the First Amendment, next year’s dinner will feature the historian Ron Chernow. The change is also an acknowledgment that, with Mr. Trump boycotting the event, the comedic monologue can feel lopsided.

Ms. Wolf called it a show of cowardice. “The media is complicit,” she wrote on Twitter. “And I couldn’t be prouder.”

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