BY ERIN CAMPBELL
If I asked you to share a communication trend you’ve observed in society over the past five years, you’d probably talk about an increase in video content or an increase in time spent viewing screens.
While these observations are both true, there’s another truth that’s also worth noting: printed communication really stands out in an increasingly digital world. This is an important reason why your local electric cooperative invests in mailing a printed magazine to you each month as a way to keep you informed. In fact, keeping members educated and informed is one of our seven co-op principles.
The Iowa Association of Electric Cooperatives, which publishes Iowa Electric Cooperative Living magazine on behalf of our subscribing member cooperatives, conducted a scientific readership survey in April. We were pleased that 1,071 member-consumers of electric co-ops responded to our email invitation and anonymously completed online surveys. They shared their content preferences, some basic demographic data and level of agreement with cooperative-minded statements. We conducted a similar survey back in 2020, which allows us to analyze trends within a five-year period for additional insight. Here are two main findings:
1. In the past five years, there has been an increase in overall readership of the magazine.
In 2020, 87% of our respondents said they read the magazine each month, compared to 89% in 2025. This is an incredible statistic when you consider how video content and screen time in general have grown significantly in that same timeframe. Almost 9 out of 10 people who receive our magazine read it; we wouldn’t get open rates remotely close to this if we delivered magazine content in a digital format.
2. Readers are spending more time with the magazine compared to five years ago.
Back in 2020, 44% of those who received the magazine told us they spent more than 10 minutes reading it each month. Five years later, that number has increased to 52% of our readers! As we develop long-form stories explaining complicated industry concepts, it’s reassuring to know that our readers will take the time to process the information.
Increased readership and engagement would not have happened without the hard work of our capable editor, Ann Foster Thelen. Ann works diligently to include stories on safety, energy efficiency, industry trends and co-op news in every issue while also keeping the magazine engaging with recipes and our monthly prize contest. We also attribute the stellar 2025 survey results to our magazine rebrand four years ago, which now showcases our reader-submitted photos of rural Iowa life on the front cover and draws readers in with a cleaner design and layout.
The purpose of publishing this magazine is to keep member-consumers and other stakeholders of Iowa’s electric cooperatives informed. For less than the cost of a first-class postage stamp, we are able to edit, design, print and mail 16 pages of meaningful content to you each month. Thank you for spending time with us!
Erin Campbell is the director of communications for the Iowa Association of Electric Cooperatives.
