How Long Can MAD Keep Going?

According to editor John Ficarra in this article… forever. He cites that while circulation on newsstands has fluctuated and dropped over the years, the subscriber base of 100,o00 stays almost perfectly constant.

So how long can Mad maintain its current state? Forever, Ficarra insists. He’s quick to point out that although newsstand sales are down, the number of Mad subscribers … roughly 100,000 … has held steady for pretty much its entire life. For generations of kids, he’s seen a pattern in the subscribers: They pick it up around the age of 12, drop it at age 16, then subscribe again out of nostalgia in their 20s. The average age of a Mad reader is 24.

The article is a good read on the current status of MAD and its content.