Concordia Scores Big With Sportsnet

Network Donates $650,000 to Journalism Program

SportsVince Morello — Published December 9, 2015 | Updated December 10, 2015 at 4:06am

The media giant owned by Rogers Media plans to donate $650,000 worth of scholarships over the next five years, as announced at a press conference at the Communication Studies and Journalism building on Wednesday.

“We wanted to invest in sports journalism programs across the country,” said Sportsnet President Scott Moore. “As I learned more about [Concordia’s program], I felt that this was the perfect place to invest in.”

A total of 15 annual scholarships will be created due the donation, including six $3,000 scholarships for undergraduate students, seven $4,000 scholarships for graduate diploma students and two $6,000 scholarships for graduate students.

Also included are two annual $8,500 prizes to students, based on their sports journalism portfolio.

“Most of the money will go to student support,” said Concordia President Alan Shepard. “[The students] need to know that the profession that they’re entering cares about their work and is going to reward quality.”

During the press conference, talk about investing into the future of journalism was a common theme. Moore mentioned investments in equipment as a long-term plan for the money.

“What strikes me now is that sports journalism is going to look very different in five years,” Moore said. “The next great ideas in sports journalism and whatever the media ecosystems will be, will come out of institutions like this so it’s important for us to invest in them,” he added.

With the donation, the department of journalism also hinted at future additions to the journalism curriculum, such as a class based solely on sports journalism. However, no real other details were given.

“Some of the money, will hopefully go toward curriculum innovation,” said chair of the Journalism department Brian Gabrial. “We still have to wait until everything gets the final approval and that’s out of our hands, [and] the universities hands.”