On Wednesday, May 6, 2015 at 1:49:26 PM UTC-6, Tony wrote:
giving away member benefits is not a good business model...

It depends on how "member benefit" is defined. Soaring Magazine and the other media mentioned by the OP should be primary marketing tools for the SSA and the sport. I suspect more "benefits" would accrue if the pay wall was removed.

It reminds me of a CFO who demanded that sales people stop giving away company product brochures because they were 'costly'. He seemed immune to the argument that the most costly brochure ever made was the one which sat in the storage room gathering dust rather than in the hands of a prospective customer potentially developing more business.