Carlton begins new chapter at the River News

If you see a new byline in today’s paper, that’s because a new reporter has joined the team of The Northwoods River News and The Lakeland Times. Ardith Carlton will be based out of the River News office, 236 South Courtney Street, but her writing will appear in the Times as well.

Carlton’s first day on the job was Monday, Jan. 19, and she brings with her past experiences that include writing in the harness racing world, working in Japan for over a decade-and-a-half and, most recently, leading the newsroom of the Iron County Miner. 

Carlton, 62, was born in Altus, Okla., but raised in Battle Creek, Mich. where her father worked at the local daily newspaper, the Battle Creek Enquirer.

From Michigan, Carlton went to Ohio and worked for Hoof Beats, a monthly magazine on harness racing. She spent 11 years there before following a dream of hers to live and work in Japan. She did that for 19 years. 

Carlton said when she returned to the states, her brother invited her to stay with him in Texas as a way to re-acclimate. 

Her love for print news never subsided though, and Carlton said she wanted to get into the newspaper business once she returned. So, she said, she kept an eye out for jobs across the country. 

That’s where the Miner comes into her story.

“So (I) applied to that, they hired me to be a reporter there, and that was in 2021,” Carlton said. “So I moved on up to Wisconsin.”

She always had an interest in northern Wisconsin. 

Carlton said while she was living in Japan, she made a trip back to the U.S. to visit a friend living in Sayner. 

“I was like, boy, this is fantastic, I’d love to live here some day,” she said. “So it all worked out.”

Carlton lives with her spouse Corky, two dogs and two cats. Right now, they are in the process of moving from Hurley to Sayner. 

While writing in the sport of harness racing, Carlton was awarded for what she said was “the equivalent of Olympic Gold in journalism in harness racing.”

“Because it’s the International Media Award,” she said. “Every other year they have an international congress for the sport and then they give out the media awards, and a feature I wrote won one year. … It’s really nice to know once, once in your life, even if it’s … some weird little niche thing, that you still got to be number one in the world at it.”

Carlton’s love for the Japanese language and culture came from her time abroad during an exchange program she participated in during her high school years. After that, she continued to pursue learning Japanese at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. 

When her father died suddenly at the age of 54, Carlton realized there were certain things she wanted to do before she died. One of those things was to live and work in Japan. 

She said she left the harness racing scene and went to Ohio State University where she applied for a two-year fellowship in Suzuka, Japan. 

To Carlton’s surprise, she was awarded the fellowship. 

“I really loved it and as the two years was wrapping up, I was like ‘Boy, I’d like to stay’ and (figured) I’ll just look around and see what else there is … and a fella who was in the same exchange program as me in high school had started his own company selling model kits out of Japan,” she said.

Carlton spent 17 years working in the office of that business authoring the catalog and assisting with customer service. 

“I would come home and visit and just see folks getting older and, you know, you’re in a bubble there,” she said. “Time doesn’t seem to pass. But then when you see the rest of the world, you see your family, it’s like ‘Wow, time is passing.’ So that company got sold and … then it was under Japanese management instead of being a really, truly international (company), I mean we had staff from all over. And …it just seemed like a good time to come back.”

Carlton said print news in Japan is “really strong.” She said she was “shocked” when she saw how much the industry changed in the U.S. during her absence.

“I was just like ‘Wow, that’s not the newspapering I remember,’” she said. “I was much younger then, my main point of reference, but I was (still) like ‘Wow.’ So I hoped to get something in journalism, but I needed to get something right away.”

There weren’t many job openings near the Dallas area where she was living at the time.

However, it somewhat came full circle for Carlton when she remembered how nice the Northwoods was when she visited the area in the past. 

She said returning to the newspaper industry wasn’t much of an adjustment. The Miner publishes weekly, so moving to the twice‑weekly Times and River News isn’t a major change.

When Carlton began covering beats such as city councils and school boards, she said it reminded her of her father’s work in Michigan. 

She indicated she was able to draw off of the importance her dad placed on community journalism. 

Carlton did a lot at the Miner — her duties ranged far and wide, covering county board, city council and school board meetings to taking pictures of community and sporting events.

“It’s an important job… what we’re doing’s vital,” she said.

Trevor Greene may be reached via email at [email protected].