 Livestock Weekly Masthead (cropped) | |
| Type | Weekly newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Tabloid |
| Founder(s) | Stanley R. Frank |
| Publisher | Robert Frank |
| Staff writers | In the mid 1990s: Ray McGehee, Sue Flanagan, Loyd Hackler, Joe Brown, Marilyn Mullins, Ona Bartley, Lee Watson, Jerry Lackey, Richard Drake, Bill Baldwin, Elmer and Steve Kelton, Joe McClure and Colleen Schreiber |
| Previous title | West Texas Livestock Weekly |
| Founded | February 10, 1949; 75 years ago (1949-02-10) |
| Language | English |
| Headquarters | San Angelo, Texas |
| City | San Angelo, Texas |
| Country | United States |
| ISSN | 0162-5057 |
| OCLC number | 3271370 |
| Website | www |
Livestock Weekly is a weekly newspaper published in San Angelo, Texas, that provides international coverage of the livestock industry, focusing on cattle, sheep, goats, range conditions, markets, and ranch life. It was started by Stanley R. Frank in 1949 and was eventually referred to as "the cowboy's Wall Street Journal."
History
After graduating from Barnhardt High School, working as a ranch hand around Barnhardt, and dropping out of college, Stanley R. Frank started the newspaper in 1949. Before that, he worked as a columnist for the San Angelo Standard-Times and held writing positions at a cattle publication in Memphis, at the Western Livestock Reporter in Los Angeles, and at the Midland Reporter-Telegram.
Buoyed by a $5,000 loan from two San Angelo ranchers, Frank wrote, edited, provided photographs, and published the first issue on February 10, 1949, then called West Texas Livestock Weekly. Charlie Moss, a printer in San Angelo, produced 5,000 copies. In its early days, the newspaper lost money, and its survival seemed bleak. Frank, who had no previous experience as a publisher, described the first issue as "pretty pitiful" and that publishing it was "sheer agony, comparable to giving birth to a porcupine, sideways." Thousands of complimentary copies were mailed out with the hope of signing on subscribers. By 1950, the newspaper was turning a profit after Frank hired editorial help. In 1977, the publication changed its name to Livestock Weekly, after its coverage expanded beyond West Texas. The main news items were country trades, an enumeration of how many head of livestock were traded at the local level. Frank gathered the bulk of his news by visiting with ranchers in the lobby of the St. Angelus Hotel, a nexus of West Texas livestock trading. Eventually, the publication earned a dedicated readership of ranchers and reached a circulation of 16,000 in 1984. By 1996, circulation had reached 20,000 subscribers located in the contiguous United States, Canada, and Mexico, with most subscribers located in Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Colorado. In 1996, after forty-seven years of publishing, the weekly had not solicited an ad or subscription.
A large part of the publication's success rests on Frank's background as a rancher, his identification with the ethos of ranching, and his dedication to reporting accurate livestock market information, along with his ability to weave humor into his writing. Stanley also popularized the cartoonist Ace Reid, first publishing Reid's work in the May 5, 1949, issue. Elmer Kelton also became a regular writer for the weekly after Stanley hired him in 1971. Other writers and artists that appeared in the weekly include John Erickson, Baxter Black, Doc Blakely, and Curt Brummett.
References
- ^ Erickson, John R. (July 1984). "Writers of the Purple Sage: San Angelo's "West Texas Livestock Weekly" is a Cow Paper with Class". Southwest Magazine.
- ^ Jones, Royce (January 14, 1996). "Weekly Going Strong After 47 Years". San Angelo Standard-Times.
- ^ "Unregistered Bull in a Hotel Lobby - Stanley R. Frank Obituary". Livestock Weekly. 46 (7). February 17, 1994.
- ^ Frank, Stanley R. (February 13, 1969). "Unregistered Bull in a Hotel Lobby". Livestock Weekly.