Penn State child sex abuse scandal

Sara Ganim's reporting for The Patriot-News, from March 2011 Ganim, then a 24-year-old police and courts reporter, broke the news that a grand jury was investigating Jerry Sandusky, months before charges made the case national. It belongs here for what it revealed about a university rather than a sports team: the scandal led to the departure of Penn State's president, Graham Spanier, and the firing of Joe Paterno. The paper won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting for "courageously revealing and adeptly covering" the scandal. It shows how much a small local newsroom can uncover through patient court reporting.