Livestock Weekly: History, Writers, Coverage and Staff
Profile updated November 2026
Livestock Weekly has been printed in San Angelo, Texas, since February 10, 1949, and has been called the cowboy's Wall Street Journal. The tabloid weekly covers cattle, sheep, goats, range conditions, markets and ranch life for readers across the Southwest and beyond.
| First issue | February 10, 1949, as West Texas Livestock Weekly |
|---|---|
| Founder | Stanley R. Frank |
| Renamed | Livestock Weekly, 1977 |
| Office | 2601 Sherwood Way, San Angelo, Texas |
| Format | Weekly tabloid, in print and digital editions |
| Owner and publisher | Robert S. Frank |
| Official website | LivestockWeekly.com |
History of Livestock Weekly
Stanley R. Frank came home to San Angelo in the fall of 1948 to start a livestock paper, financing it with a $5,000 loan from two local ranchers. He had no publishing experience. San Angelo printer Charlie Moss produced 5,000 copies of the first issue, West Texas Livestock Weekly, on February 10, 1949; Frank later called it pretty pitiful. Fillmore Epley of Lenorah, Texas, was the first paid subscriber, and the paper turned a profit by 1950.
Cartoonist Ace Reid's work first ran in the paper on May 5, 1949, and novelist Elmer Kelton, later one of the best-known Western writers, served as associate editor from 1968 to 1990. Other contributors over the years included John Erickson, Baxter Black, Doc Blakely and Curt Brummett. As coverage spread past West Texas, the paper became simply Livestock Weekly in 1977.
Circulation reached 16,000 in 1984 and 20,000 by 1996, with subscribers across the contiguous states, Canada, Mexico and Australia, most of them in Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado. As of 1996, after 47 years, the paper had never solicited an ad or a subscription.
Livestock Weekly Today
Livestock Weekly is still owned by the Frank family and published by Robert S. Frank from its San Angelo headquarters. It continues to print a hard copy every week alongside a digital edition, and writers describe it as the newspaper of record for livestock news and markets in Texas and the Southwest.
The paper also opens its pages to readers: in March 2025 it reprinted a rancher's open letter to Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins after Connor Frank of the paper's staff reached out to the author.
What Livestock Weekly Is Publishing Now
Markets and range conditions
Auction reports, cattle, sheep and goat markets, and rain and range condition reports across the Southwest.
Ranch features
Profiles of ranch families and operations and stories of ranch life, a beat Elmer Kelton worked for more than two decades.
Sheep, goats and wildlife
Coverage of sheep and goat production, a mainstay of the San Angelo country, alongside cattle.
Livestock Weekly Editors and Staff
Published staff listings name:
- Robert S. Frank - Owner and Publisher
- Colleen Schreiber - Editorial
- Connor Frank - Sales, marketing and social media
- Paula Rankin - Advertising
- CiJi Dickson - Circulation
- Elmer Kelton - Former associate editor, 1968-1990
Who Reads Livestock Weekly
Readers are ranchers, feeders, auction barn operators and agribusiness people, centered in Texas and the Southwest. Texas A&M AgriLife Extension lists Livestock Weekly among the livestock publications it points producers to. Cattle and calves are the largest single source of U.S. animal agriculture receipts, according to USDA's Economic Research Service, and Texas leads the nation in cattle numbers.
Livestock Weekly readers grew up on Ace Reid cartoons and Elmer Kelton stories, so they appreciate a well-aimed Texas tall tale. For more in that vein, farm.FM serves farm satire and farm humor with a dry West Texas delivery, plus ranch humor for anybody who has prayed for rain over a goat pasture. Its farm jokes cost less than a load of hay.
For context, farm.FM is the nation's first satirical farm site and the home of Tractor Tunes, country music for farmers. Its contributors each keep an archive, and this one is a good sampler of ranch humor and farm jokes.
Livestock Weekly Sources and Agriculture Authority Links
- Wikipedia: Livestock Weekly - history, writers and circulation.
- West of 98: Special announcement - a 2025 account of the paper's print edition and staff.
- Texas A&M AgriLife Extension: Livestock publications online - extension list that includes Livestock Weekly.
- USDA ERS: Animal product receipts - cattle and livestock economics.
- USDA NASS Quick Stats - Texas livestock statistics.
Livestock Weekly FAQ
When was Livestock Weekly founded?
Its first issue, as West Texas Livestock Weekly, appeared February 10, 1949. It became Livestock Weekly in 1977.
Who founded Livestock Weekly?
Stanley R. Frank, with a $5,000 loan from two San Angelo ranchers.
Who publishes Livestock Weekly now?
Robert S. Frank, the owner and publisher, in San Angelo, Texas.
Did Elmer Kelton work for Livestock Weekly?
Yes. The Western novelist was associate editor from 1968 to 1990.
Three-quarters of a century after Stanley Frank's pitiful first issue, Livestock Weekly is still printed every week in San Angelo for the ranchers who read it cover to cover.