On March 31, 2011, The Patriot-News published an article written by the newspaper's lawyers[18] based on Ganim's reporting that a grand jury was investigating child sex abuse accusations against Sandusky.

[6] On January 8, 2014, Ganim wrote a story for CNN claiming that some student-athletes at NCAA Division I member colleges and universities read at a third-grade level or below.

[34][35] Since July 2022, Ganim has been the James Madison Visiting Professor on First Amendment Issues at Columbia Journalism School.

"[36] For the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse case work, Ganim gained early attention as the scandal broadened.

In February, 2012, Ganim became the youngest person ever, at age 24, to receive the Sidney Award for socially conscious journalism.

[3][38] In February 2012, Long Island University announced that she had won a prestigious George Polk Award in Journalism in 2011 for her coverage of the story.

[39][40][41] Newsweek magazine named her one of "150 Women Who Shake the World" in March, 2012,[42] and it was announced that Ganim and The Patriot-News would receive the Scripps Howard Award for Community Journalism, again for the Sandusky/Penn State coverage.

[43] In April 2012, then-24-year-old Ganim became the third-youngest person (Jackie Crosby won at 22, Stephanie Welsh at 23) to win a Pulitzer Prize.

[7] For her UNC coverage, Ganim won a 2015 Sigma Delta Chi Award from the Society of Professional Journalists.

[47] In 2021, the podcast "Why We Don't Know" won first place in the Public Service category of the 2020 Educational Writers Association national journalism awards.