Produced by Kansas Electric Cooperatives Inc. and their 23 subscribing co-ops, Kansas Country Living was born in August 1952 and first named Kansas Electric Farmer, with a mission to educate co-op consumer-members about legislative issues, electrical safety, and wise energy use. The initial editor collected authentic stories from farm visits and curated them into an average of 22 pages of content.
The availability of electric energy in rural Kansas made for better living, more productive farming and expansion of business and industry. As the cities became more crowded, more people moved to rural Kansas, and more rural Kansans began working in cities, altering the makeup of electric cooperative memberships. Thus, in 1972, the publication was renamed Kansas Country Living. It has emerged from a newsprint tabloid to a full-color magazine, and continues to be a cost-effective way for Kansas electric cooperatives to communicate with 100% of their members on a consistent basis. While the main magazine publishes a variety of useful and entertaining content that reflects the lifestyles and cultures of rural and suburban Kansas, electric cooperatives develop their own personalized pages with news, updates, and announcements specific to their local consumer-members, which can be found beginning on Page 16A.
Today Kansas Country Living has an MPA audited circulation of more than 132,000 and continues to be an integral communications channel between Kansas electric cooperatives and their consumer-members. And although the magazine still offers the latest news, energy efficiency tips, and electrical safety at home and on the farm, it also covers emerging technology related to electric vehicles, smart devices that help save energy, and rural sustainability topics electric co-ops engage in with state lawmakers.
The Kansas Country Living website enhances the magazine by bringing to life the stories told of Kansas people and places with bonus online content, photos and videos. The site also offers opportunities to submit recipes, photos and story ideas to help us share the best Kansas and its people have to offer.