Short answers, pulled from the story.
Annalee Newitz launched io9 in 2008 with a radical idea to treat science fiction as a serious lens for examining the future. Newitz was approached by Gawker Media to create a new voice for science and science fiction after her previous magazine project ceased print publication.
Annalee Newitz retired from both io9 and Gizmodo on the 30th of November 2015. Newitz explained that they had grown to disliking managing both sites at once and having taken them away from their passion of writing articles.
Rob Bricken took over as editor of io9 on the 26th of April 2016 after Charlie Jane Anders left the site to focus on her second novel. Bricken's tenure lasted until the 31st of July 2018 when he stepped down as editor of io9.
In 2023 io9 was amongst sites owned by G/O Media that published AI written articles to significant backlash. James Whitbrook published a statement denouncing the decision to publish such material and internal dissent arose from staff members concerned about the quality and authenticity of AI-generated articles.
In January 2014 Gawker integrated io9 with Gizmodo by merging io9's 11-member staff with Gizmodo's 22 person staff under Annalee Newitz's overall supervision. The merger was intended to better coordinate content and reduce redundancy as io9 is a science and science fiction blog while Gizmodo is a technology blog.