Sandusky saga is the story of her life for young reporter

In the February issue of Esquire - the one with Bill Clinton on the cover - there's a sidebar to the cover story. It's a list of what the mag calls "things we can all agree on." One item on the list is, "It's still better to read the paper on paper." It's followed by "Especially The New York Times, the only essential newspaper left," which is followed by "Except for the Harrisburg Patriot-News."

The main reason the Harrisburg paper is getting national attention these days, the reason it has been deemed essential reading, is because of its 24-year-old crime reporter, Sara Ganim.

It was she who last March broke the story that former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was the subject of a state grand-jury probe into allegations that he sexually abused a young boy over a 4-year period, starting when the boy was 10.

It is she who continues to break developments about the case, its fallout, PSU trustees and more. Just last Saturday, for example, she reported this: "Moments before Penn State's board of trustees voted to fire Joe Paterno, Gov. Tom Corbett uttered a final thought. 'Remember that little boy in the shower,' Corbett said via speakerphone, acting in his role on the 32-member board.

"It was the last thing the board members heard before being asked if anyone objected to relieving Paterno of a coaching job he'd held for 61 years. With that, Paterno was fired Nov. 9 in a late-night move that led to student riots in State College and boiling animosity toward the board by alumni."

Ganim is a Penn State grad, class of 2008; got a degree in 3 years. She's worked at some level of journalism since high school and is described as being born to the biz. That she's working the story for her newspaper and as a contracted CNN contributor, with widely acclaimed professionalism and poise, is of no surprise to people who know her.

"As a student, she was almost like a veteran reporter in that she recognized what a good story was," says Russ Eshleman, associate head of PSU's journalism department, who taught her. "There's nothing shy about her. She's a true newshound.

"My biggest concern as her instructor was to keep to the basic rule of medicine and do no harm. I didn't want to screw her up," Eshleman says.

In fact, Eshleman, formerly a longtime Inquirer reporter, hired Ganim as an adjunct to teach an introductory journalism class last spring, and monitored her classes. "She was great," he says. "Her students loved her, because she had so many good, real-world examples and stories to tell."

Ganim was born in Detroit, but grew up in Coral Springs, Fla. She did freelance work for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel as a high-school sophomore. While in college, she had an internship with the Associated Press in Philly. After graduation, she worked at the Centre Daily Times and 3WZ News Radio in State College. She joined the Patriot-News last January.

"The thing that's so great about her is that we trust her," says Cate Barron, Patriot-News executive editor, "and she's an old-school crime reporter with all the technology tools. She tweets, she blogs, she videos and she writes for the newspaper."

Barron adds: "The Sandusky story involved using a lot of unnamed sources. She got the mothers of victims to open up to her, to trust her; and we've never been burned . . . I've been in this business for 30 years; you just don't see this type of journalist come along very often."

Many are noticing. Last month, Sports Illustrated said this: "There is a light in the darkness of the Penn State scandal, and her name is Sara Ganim." The mag said her work was "at the forefront of coverage as the national media followed her enterprising lead." And it quoted Ganim saying, "Getting people to talk was the challenge, but once they started, it was unbelievable what we found." It added, "With Ganim destined for a bigger stage, one can expect to read all about it."

Ganim was guest speaker on Monday at a Pennsylvania Press Club luncheon in Harrisburg, the only working reporter to address the group in its 15-year history. She stressed that the Sandusky story is a crime story and "a testament to local journalism, especially to reporters who refuse to buy into the notion that the news industry is dying simply because it is changing."

She was tipped to the story while working at the State College paper, but says it took 2 years of old-fashioned, shoe-leather reporting to run it down. From the time her March 2011 story broke until Sandusky was charged, she took heat from PSU supporters seeking a retraction. She says she was sustained by the fact that no one, not Sandusky, not his lawyer, ever questioned the accuracy of her reporting on the then-secret investigation, even as both claimed Sandusky's innocence.

Ganim is self-assured but not self-promoting. She deflects questions about possible awards (the Patriot has submitted her work for the Pulitzer Prize), books, screenplays or future jobs. "I still have so much I want to do here," she says.

But at the press luncheon, she offered no hints as to what that might entail. Asked during a Q&A session where she sees the story headed, she laughed and chided at the same time. "No. There are reporters in the room. Sorry. Absolutely not!" she said, smiling, "but I will tell you I'm not done."

Few would disagree with that.

Send email to baerj@phillynews.com