MarketWatch
Sara Ganim, crime reporter for The Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pa., reported in March that a grand jury was investigating Jerry Sandusky for allegations of sexual abuse. Working at a midsized newspaper enabled Ganim, who graduated from Penn State in 2008, to develop sources on a beat rather than being assigned low-level stories if she had worked at a larger newspaper, writes Jon Friedman. “Ganim has had an advantage of covering the story for a paper out of the national limelight. … Sometimes it’s a blessing to be a big fish in a small pond — especially when opportunity knocks.”
“Crime reporting can [be] technical or touching,” she mused. “You can really do a lot of good. I’m usually covering people on the worst days of their lives. I can write about DUI crash victims and maybe help to bring about changes in laws or in rules about medical assistance.”
Related: Smaller staffs one reason that Pennsylvania media didn’t expose story sooner (The Wrap) | Patriot-News editor says newspaper broke story as soon as its reporting allowed (Patriot-News) | Poynter Review ombudsman says ESPN’s early coverage of Penn State sexual abuse scandal slow, “tone-deaf” (Poynter.org)
