Short answers, pulled from the story.
Joystiq first appeared quietly in April 2004 before being formally unveiled on the 16th of June 2004. The site emerged at a time when gaming websites were dominated by large corporate entities.
By November 2005 Joystiq split its main site into a network of specialized blogs dedicated to specific consoles. This move coincided with the North American launch of the Xbox 360 and the acquisition of Weblogs Inc by AOL.
The Joystiq Podcast was hosted by editor-in-chief Chris Grant Ludwig Kietzmann and Justin McElroy. The original podcast ended in 2011 but its legacy lived on through various formats until the site's closure.
Joystiq ceased operations after the 3rd of February 2015 following an announcement on the 30th of January 2015. The web address today redirects to Engadget Gaming which hosts much of the site's old content.
Grant and the McElroys' departure from Joystiq in 2012 allowed them to found the games journalism website Polygon. The McElroys also began The Besties that year while Ludwig Kietzmann briefly became U.S. Editor-in-Chief for GamesRadar+ before retiring from journalism in 2016.