Apparently, M uses a profitable business based on paid memberships, which cover the cost of payouts to the M staff and to the writers who are members generating some traffic with their stories. If every paid member made more $$ than they spent on the membership, the M business would collapse. So, some members must lose money to make the M business sustainable and generate some profit margins for the M staff. There is no other way around because M is not a charity, so somebody has to pay to keep M alive.