Cydney Hayes

Cydney Hayes is a business and tech reporter for Gazetteer SF. She has previously written about tech, culture, music, and media for The Drift, Architectural Digest, Baltimore, Entertainment Weekly, and elsewhere. She also writes a Substack newsletter called OPENWORLD. Subscribe at openw0rld.substack.com.
A beloved magazine about writers and money is reborn as a newsletter
Manjula Martin, Rahawa Haile, and friends are resurrecting ‘Scratch’ as a place for writers to talk about money, art, and how they survive
Chan Zuckerberg Initiative sued for gender discrimination by director
The lawsuit alleges women at the company were paid less and systemically tasked with menial labor
‘When you land in Vegas, it feels like this’: Gambling on the future of gaming at GDC
Video games offering cash payouts are on the rise, and developers are betting that they’ll spread
Reclaiming em dashes — and other battles in the AI age
Plus, the White House ruins Wii Sports
Finally, a defense of brainrot
It’s a modern virtue, so says an AI exec. Plus, send me tips about the gaming industry
San Francisco’s future spokespeople: Coyotes
A new city ad is rumored to be in the works, headed up by ‘Last Black Man in San Francisco’ director Joe Talbot
Soon Technology is tech-pilled and loving it
A Vice Media alum’s ‘new media’ company offers up friendly coverage to an increasingly controversial industry
Wars within wars
Anthropic’s loss is OpenAI’s gain. Plus, the mysterious “Dime” appears at Sightglass
Guerrilla outdoor campaign decrying ‘GROK CHILD PORN’ appears around the city
The mysterious marketing push comes amid public uproar and international investigations into sex abuse material generated by Elon Musk’s chatbot
Who (allegedly) runs tech?
Two magazines investigate. Plus, the people want a ‘Silicon Valley’ reboot









