RANGE Magazine: History, C.J. Hadley, Content and Staff
Profile updated November 2026
RANGE magazine is a quarterly from Carson City, Nevada, that calls itself an advocate for Western cowboys and sheepherders. Founded by British-born journalist C.J. Hadley in 1991, it pairs large-format photography of ranch country with hard-edged reporting on grazing, public lands and rural life, and it has won more than 60 press awards.
| Founded | 1991, by C.J. (Caroline Joy) Hadley |
|---|---|
| Home | Carson City, Nevada (PO Box 639), since 1996 |
| Frequency | Quarterly |
| Publisher | Rachel Dahl |
| Recognition | More than 60 press awards, including seven Freedom of the Press Awards |
| Readership | About 150,000 subscribers (2005 report) |
| Official website | RangeMagazine.com |
History of RANGE Magazine
C.J. Hadley grew up in Birmingham, England, and built a career as a photojournalist and editor, working for Sports Illustrated, the Saturday Evening Post, Car and Driver and AutoWeek, and publishing Nevada Magazine. In 1989 a group of Nevada cowboys asked her to help produce a brochure for Congress describing Great Basin ranching. That project convinced her that ranchers needed a voice of their own, and she began publishing RANGE in 1991, with some accounts dating the first issue to 1992.
Hadley ran the magazine from her home at first and moved it to Carson City in 1996. By 2005 the Northern Nevada Business Weekly reported about 150,000 subscribers in every state and many countries, with the magazine relying largely on subscriptions and donations rather than heavy advertising. Hadley said its purpose was to educate the public about the struggles of ranchers and food producers, whom she called the most important people in the world.
Her work drew wide recognition: Western Ranchers Beef named her Westerner of the Year in 2005, she won several Will Rogers Gold Medallions, and in October 2021 the Will Rogers Medallion Awards gave her its first Lifetime Achievement Award at a banquet in Fort Worth.
RANGE Magazine Today
RANGE still publishes four issues a year, with Spring 2026 the latest featured on its site under the banner 36 years Truth and Beauty. Rachel Dahl is now publisher and writes the Opening Lines column, while Hadley continues to contribute her Out Back column. Recent contributors include Larry Turner, Marjorie Haun, Julie Carter, Stephen L. Wilmeth and Jim Petersen.
The magazine also runs a book and calendar business, publishing photo books such as Hadley's At the Edge of Out There, and supports the RANGE Community Foundation. Back issues are indexed online, and a newsletter keeps readers up to date between issues.
What RANGE Magazine Is Publishing Now
Ranch stories and profiles
Features on ranch families, cowboys and sheepherders across the West, much of it written by freelancers.
Land and policy
Reporting and commentary on public lands grazing, water, wildlife and federal regulation.
Confessions of Red Meat Survivors
A recurring short feature from readers, alongside large-format photography of the open range.
RANGE Magazine Editors and Staff
RANGE's own pages name:
- Rachel Dahl - Publisher
- C.J. Hadley - Founder, longtime editor and publisher; columnist (Out Back)
Letters to the editor go to edit@rangemagazine.com.
Who Reads RANGE Magazine
Readers are ranchers, cowboys and sheepherders, plus a large audience of urban and suburban Americans drawn to the West; Hadley described her subscribers as spread across city, suburb and countryside. Much of the ranching RANGE covers depends on federal grazing land in states such as Nevada. Cattle are the largest segment of U.S. livestock receipts, according to USDA's Economic Research Service, and USDA's Census of Agriculture tracks the ranches behind them.
RANGE readers have weathered drought and every federal grazing rule since 1991, so their sense of humor is as tough as their boots. For lighter reading between issues, farm.FM offers farm satire and farm humor in a deadpan rural voice, plus ranch humor for anyone who has counted sheep on a real allotment. Its farm jokes never require a permit.
If the name is new to you, farm.FM is the nation's first satirical farm site, with Tractor Tunes country music for farmers on the side. One of its regular writers keeps a whole archive of stories like that.
RANGE Magazine Sources and Agriculture Authority Links
- RANGE magazine - current issue, books and contacts.
- Northern Nevada Business Weekly: Straight-talking publisher defends traditional West - a 2005 profile of Hadley.
- RANGE: Hadley's Will Rogers lifetime award - the 2021 honor.
- USDA ERS: Animal product receipts - cattle economics.
- USDA NASS Census of Agriculture - Western ranch statistics.
RANGE Magazine FAQ
Who founded RANGE magazine?
C.J. Hadley, a British-born journalist, who began publishing it in 1991.
Where is RANGE magazine published?
In Carson City, Nevada.
How often does RANGE come out?
Quarterly.
Who is the publisher of RANGE now?
Rachel Dahl. Hadley still writes the Out Back column.
More than three decades in, RANGE magazine still speaks up for the cowboys and sheepherders of the West, four times a year.