College Park, MD (November 9, 2002) - - Cygnus Business Media, a leading, diversified B2B media company, announced today it has acquired The Fire-EMS Information Network, an online portal located at Fire-EMS.net, from Illinois-based Cambert, Ltd. The site was one of the first portals to serve the emergency services industry, offering free home page hosting for thousands of departments worldwide.
Cygnus Business Media already reaches millions of fire and EMS professionals through their highly successful Firehouse.com, Firehouse magazine, and Firehouse Expo, all of which hold market leading positions within the fire-rescue industry.
The Fire-EMS Information Network is credited with providing the first true directory of fire and EMS departments online. Today, it receives over one million page views monthly, hosts more than 6,000 home pages and offers 10,000 links to fire and EMS departments worldwide.
According to Alexa Web Rankings, the Fire-EMS Network is the second most-visited emergency services Web site, behind Firehouse.com.
"Many fire departments around the country had their first home page hosted on the Fire-EMS Information Network and many other departments -- including my own -- modeled their first web sites after their format," says Dave Iannone, co-founder and Publisher of Firehouse.com. "Now we can combine the Fire-EMS Network with our site and vastly expand on our ability to deliver to our readers and subscribers more of the news, information and resources they need to do their job."
The Fire & EMS Information Network provides message boards, live chats and personal home pages from fire and EMS users. A Resource Center offers a library, links to government agencies, associations, unions, schools and training and much more. Its Products and Services section provides a comprehensive online directory of fire and EMS equipment and service providers as well as links to research programs that are available online. All of these services will be interwoven into the core Firehouse.com site in the coming months.
The acquisition coincides with the launch of the Firehouse Network, a new service offered by Firehouse.com that will feature state, regional and international news and resources, hiring profiles from hundreds of North American fire and EMS departments, regional forums and much more. Scheduled to be unveiled in December, the Firehouse Network will continue to offer free web hosting for departments as Fire-EMS.net has done. In addition, the Firehouse Network will provide for expanded department profiles, news, information and images.
"We at The Fire-EMS Information Network are extremely proud of the work we have done and what we have created," says Bob Campbell, president of Cambert Ltd. "Firehouse.com and Cygnus Business Media can offer much more for the site and its users making this acquisition a win-win for all involved."
Integrating The Fire & EMS Information Network with the resources of Firehouse.com will create the web's largest directory of emergency services sites. It will also include an alumni directory of past and present members from each department. A new look and feel for the free home page offerings will provide for a fresh appearance and more opportunities.
"All of these new services, combined with the rich content and interactive features made available through Firehouse.com's recently launched subscriber-based MembersZone, will make Firehouse.com the total online destination for community, content and commerce for the world's first responders," adds Iannone.
Cygnus Business Media's Firehouse.com is the most visited fire and emergency services portal on the web with over six million page views and more than 500,000 unique visitors monthly. Unique to the market, Firehouse.com's new media team is comprised of many firefighters and emergency services workers. The company also publishes Firehouse magazine, owns and manages both Firehouse Expo and Firehouse World Expo tradeshows, the Firehouse traveling conference series, Firehouse on the Road, and publishes Public Safety Product News and Publicsafety.com, for a combined reach in the fire and emergency services market unmatched by any other business-to-business company. For more information log onto Firehouse.com or Cygnusb2b.com.
