Arthur (Art) Carr

Publisher, Palmerston Observer

 

Art, born in Sudbury in 1912, was a newspaper publisher, editor and innovator.

In 1920, while working at a newspaper in North Bay, the stock market crashed, and the Great Depression hit. After being laid off, he sold his Model T for the price of a new overcoat and a ticket back to Sudbury, where he joined the staff of the Nickel City Press.

In the late 1920’s, he joined the staff of the Sudbury Star,  but  claimed they “wouldn’t let me play around and learn to be a linotype operator and I thought they were standing in my path of progress and I quit.” He moved to the Sudbury Journal.

While various accounts of the timeline differ slightly, Art arrived in Palmerston sometime between 1934 and 1938, joining the Palmerston Observer as a reporter.

Art eventually bought the Observer, using funds he had raised from a local businessman. He is considered one of the pioneers of offset printing in the weekly newspaper industry and laid claim to making the Palmerston Observer the first Ontario newspaper printed by offset lithography in 1958.

He retired in 1977 and sold the paper to Laverne Long, who remained at the helm until the sale of the paper to Metroland in 2000.  

In a 2016 entry on his blog, local historian Chad Martin wrote: “Carr can be credited with making huge inroads into the formal preservation of Palmerston’s history. He was a major advocate of promoting local news and stories. Seeing an opportunity to do just this, Carr quickly began researching and printing various articles about ‘the good old days’ and the local heroes of the town. It is perhaps this interest in history that prompted George Donaldson, a long-time citizen, politician and businessman of Palmerston to write a five-page article about the town in 1942. For the next thirty years this was seen as the primary history of the town.”

This is why the Ontario Community Newspapers Association is thrilled to announce Arthur (Art) Carr as an inductee of the OCNA Hall of Fame.

The Hall of Fame Award recognizes and celebrates individuals who have made exemplary contributions to Ontario’s community newspapers. Inductees are respected community news professionals who have remained passionate about the industry throughout challenges, opportunities and changes. They are leaders who have helped community newspapers adapt and grow.