Their grousing about Gibbs is widespread — and almost always delivered on a not-for-attribution basis. Few journalists have the temerity to attach their names to criticism of a man who is their main source of information about the new president and his staff.

But one of their chief criticisms is also a compliment of sorts: Gibbs, they say, is trying to do too much.

He is both press secretary and presidential confidant, working on the inside to shape policy as the president wrestles with a shrinking economy and a growing war in Afghanistan, and on the outside to convince the world that the president is succeeding.

Not only does Gibbs wear two hats, he faces demands as press secretary greater than any of his predecessors, a result of the confluence of modern technology and the worldwide interest in Obama. It’s not unusual for Gibbs to receive 1,000 e-mail messages in a single day, according to his deputy, Bill Burton. On top of those he gets endless telephone requests and a daily barrage of questions in the White House briefing room.

But Gibbs has an advantage over almost every press secretary before him: He knows the president’s mind, perhaps better than anyone else working for Obama.

Peter Baker, a New York Times White House correspondent who previously covered the White House for The Washington Post, and one of the few White House reporters willing to speak on the record, put it this way:

“From a reporter’s point of view, the value Robert brings to the table is his closeness to the president and his understanding of how he thinks and how he looks at the world. What can be frustrating is that off the podium, it’s hard to get the benefit of that knowledge because phone calls and e-mails go unanswered.”

Or as one of Baker’s competitors observed tartly, an e-mail to Gibbs and his aides has a “50-50 chance” of getting a response.

“It’s amazing how unresponsive they are,” the reporter said.

A reporter for a major national news outlet was even more emphatic: “Getting back to you? He does not. Period. Period. It’s the worst I’ve ever seen.”

Comparing the still-new Gibbs staff and the press office serving President George W. Bush, the reporter said of the latter: “They wouldn’t talk but at least they’d call back and say they wouldn’t talk. [Now] it’s easier to get the White House chief of staff on the phone than the White House press secretary. It’s weird.”

Burton said that given the volume and breadth of inquiries — the daily news briefing, he noted, might produce questions on Afghanistan and the auto industry, but also on North Korea and the U.S. Postal Service — the press office is doing a mighty job.

“We’ve done everything we can to make sure we’re as responsive as possible to the media,” Burton said. “Gibbs has an open-door policy. People can always call him or e-mail him.”

And to be fair, not everyone in the press room is grumbling.

“Robert is under a lot of pressure, especially now given the financial crisis and the fact that we’re in the middle of two wars,” said Ed Henry, CNN’s senior White House correspondent. “I’ve found him to be accessible. Can you get a straight answer or not? I’ve found I can.”

Gibbs, who just turned 38, signed on with Obama just as the Chicagoan was making his move onto the national stage with his 2004 Senate race in Illinois. Gibbs helped shape Obama’s strategy and message, and organized political operations in the campaign and then in the Senate before shifting to Obama’s presidential campaign after two years.

Now, doing much the same job but with the world watching, he arrives at the office between 5:30 and 6 o’clock each weekday morning and goes home between 8 and 10 p.m., Burton said.

A native of Auburn, Ala., and a political science major at North Carolina State, Gibbs grew up in a politically active home. His mother recalled, in an Associated Press interview, taking him to League of Women Voters meetings rather than hiring a baby sitter.

His youthful interest in politics led him to Capitol Hill — he worked for Rep. Glen Browder, D-Ala., and Rep. Bob Etheridge, D-N.C., among others — and for Sen. John Kerry during the initial months of the Massachusetts senator’s 2004 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Gibbs’ political acumen and closeness to the president are reminiscent of Jody Powell, who as press secretary to Jimmy Carter occupied the same office as Gibbs in the northeast corner of the White House West Wing, just paces from the Oval Office.

Powell is familiar with the difficulty of having access to the president while trying to give access to the press.

“There’s no doubt you’ll be a more effective spokesperson, of more value to the administration and to the journalists, if you are involved in the process, if you understand how the decisions were made and all the options,” Powell said.

“On the other hand, that takes time. It takes time to know stuff. Any journalist — if they thought about it for a minute — would say they’d rather deal with the problem of getting hold of the press secretary,” who knows what he’s talking about, than finding that once they reach him, he’s “just reading off a script.”

In the end, White House press secretaries are judged by the accuracy, depth and timeliness of the information they provide and by their responsiveness to reporters dealing with deadlines and instructions from their editors.

Martha Joynt Kumar, a professor of political science at Towson University and an expert on White House press operations, said that Gibbs’ office functions much as it did during the presidential campaign. It puts considerable energy into not just providing information — the traditional role of a press office — but also into tracking what is being written about the president.

“They follow everything,” meaning reports on the still-important nightly network newscasts to items on obscure blogs. And, Kumar said, “They can be real attack dogs if they don’t like your stories.”