Welcome to 2022 and all that is or will be new! It’s our chance to wipe the slate clean and start over or improve our current status — with our diets, bad habits, budgets — or a new look.
Same goes for Kansas Country Living. To celebrate the magazine’s 70th anniversary in 2022, we’ve made cosmetic updates and put the magazine on a diet, so to speak.
You may have noticed the cover’s new look with a more modern magazine nameplate (also known in the business as the flag). We’ve also added a 70-year emblem to celebrate this incredible milestone throughout the year.
While you will notice the same familiar and popular content each month, it all will be published within fewer pages. The stress on and chaos of the supply chain in 2021 greatly affected paper prices and its availability. In an effort to mitigate the rising costs and increase our chances of procuring paper each month, we’ve downsized the number of pages in the main part of the magazine. Our Kansas electric cooperative’s local pages will now begin on Page 12A (vs. 16A previously).
Each issue will still include your favorite departments, like Cooking My Way Home by Rebecca Howard, and the money-saving articles in the Energy Wise section. The only current offering that will cease after February is the President’s Pen column by Terry Hobbs, board member of Western Cooperative Electric, as his tenure as board president of Kansas Electric Cooperatives, Inc. will come to an end. I’m still trying to coax him into writing special guest columns when he has time. His prose captured the hearts of our readers and his humor kept us smiling through the tough pandemic years.
Our staff and our subscribing electric co-ops are excited in anticipation of one more significant change — the launch of the magazine’s website on Feb. 1. The online version of Kansas Country Living will offer bonus content not published in the magazine including videos, expanded features and a section dedicated to showcasing the cooperatives’ commitment to community. Readers will be able to share their photos, recipes and upcoming community events. The website is designed to enhance the magazine and offer a digital experience for those who like to consume their information in a variety of ways. Stay tuned and stay warm!
