The first issue of Electrical Design News — the original name — was published May 1956 by Rogers Corporation of Englewood, Colorado. In January 1961, Cahners Publishing Company, Inc., of Boston, acquired Rogers Publishing Company. In February 1966, Cahners sold 40% of its company to International Publishing Company in London. In 1970, the Reed Group merged with International Publishing Corporation and changed its name to Reed International Limited.

Cahners Publishing Company acquired Electronic Equipment Engineering, a monthly magazine, in March 1971 and discontinued it. In doing so, Cahners folded EEE's best features into EDN, and renamed the magazine EDN/EEE. At the time, George Harold Rostky (1926–2003) had been editor-in-chief of EEE. Rostky joined EDN and eventually became editor-in-chief before leaving to join Electronic Engineering Times as editor-in-chief.

In 1977, Reed acquired the remaining interest in Cahners, then known as Cahners Publications. In 1982, Reed International Limited changed its name to to Reed International PLC. In 1992, Reed International merged with Elsevier NV, becoming Reed Elsevier PLC as of January 1, 1993.

Reed Business Information, part of Reed Elsevier, sold the magazine to Canon Communications LLC February 2010. United Business Media, now UBM LLC, acquired Canon Communications LLC in October 2010.

The magazine and its website - EDN Network - cater to the needs of the working electrical engineer and cover new technologies and electronic component products at an engineering level. Columns discuss everything from managing engineers and engineering projects to technical issues faced in the design of electronic components, systems, and developing technologies.