The difference between gross negligence and malice is no real difference at all.

Calling someone “crazy” generally means you don’t have any actual argument. And you seem to have deliberately ignored the line right before the one you quote:

One publication, based in New York City, has a contract that explicitly states they will pay their contractors in 30 days.

If I have a contract with someone, and I break it, there will be penalties. If I go to my landlord and say, “Sorry I haven’t been making rent, but it isn’t malicious,” he’d laugh at me and say, “I don’t care whether it’s malice or not. Pay me.”