Oklahoma Living

For more than 75 years, Oklahoma Living has served Oklahoma’s rural electric cooperative members by supplying information about their local electric co-ops, affordable electricity, and Oklahoma’s rural lifestyle.

After five years of planning, Oklahoma Living came to life in January 1948 as Oklahoma Rural News – a black-and-white newspaper, roughly 8 to 12 pages long. The publication began as a house organ for Oklahoma’s rural electric cooperatives and had less than 100,000 readers, most of whom were farmers. Oklahoma Rural News focused on agriculture, rural development, and affordable electricity. There were minimal interactive articles on the “Homemakers’ Page” which featured recipes, patterns, and pen-pals.

Although 50% of our readers still own farms, the dynamic of rural Oklahoma’s inhabitants is ever-changing. Rural Oklahomans have become more urbanized, more recreational and more self-sustainable. In July 1992, in an attempt to stress “livability” rather than “agriculture” as an ongoing topic of the publication, we changed our name from Oklahoma Rural News to Oklahoma Living.

As our readers have evolved, so have we. Oklahoma Living has since become more interactive, colorful and diverse while still keeping a firm grasp on our co-op roots and maintaining our rural American charm. Through the years, the publication has expanded to a full-color, 8.5 X 10.5-inch magazine. Our readership has grown to over 350,000 making us the largest publication in Oklahoma.