Inevitably you will get a call from a newly-minted or novice reporter, often representing an outlet that is not in your tier one. You can blow it off, but you probably shouldn’t. Here’s a real life example why: Years ago in Texas a lowly reporter for a daily newspaper started poking around a major semiconductor company asking some hard questions and writing some articles the company found objectionable. Determining that the reporter was from a local paper with a limited reach, as the story goes, they decided the best thing to do would be to just ignore the guy: take no more questions; grant no more interviews. However, that reporter went on to cover the technology beat for The New York Times. Ouch, right? Lesson to be learned here: be nice to newbies.