I was reading some of the issues from the 70's/early 80's recently and readers were commenting on the reprints in Fang Mail. Forry referred more than once to a 'lean time' for monster mags that forced them into reprints. He also stated that mags that DIDN'T run reprints were put out of business. I'm just not sure how Warren saved money on the reprints since Forry was on salary and did most of the writing. And the '3 year cycle' thing makes little sense since there was absolutely no way for them to determine such a thing, except by Fang Mail, which clearly shows them getting letters from the same people over many, many years, alongside the new readers. And only a small percentage of a mag's readership will ever write in.
And then, sometime in the 70's (around Star Wars) the reprints became fewer and fewer and almost non-existant toward the end of the mag's run. And I think the mag was still in good shape financially when Warren went into hiding. It seems they were shooting for a rebirth when Warren got into whatever kind of trouble he was in and split. I wonder what FM would have been like in, say, 1985, had it stuck around?

Best wishes,

Tom Wescott