Firehouse.com Honored with 2006 Gold Azbee Award

Contact:
Kathy Scott
Cygnus Business Media
(770) 427-5290
Kathy.Scott@cygnusb2b.com

For Immediate Release

American Society of Business Publication Editors sets website apart as top pick

Beltsville, MD (August 7, 2006) – Firehouse.com, the leading online community serving America’s millions of First Responders, has been honored with a 2006 Azbee Award presented by the American Society of Business Publication Editors (ASBPE) as the top site in the Interactive Community category. Category winners were selected based on their ability to demonstrate strong interactive community and involvement among website members and other industry-related audiences.

"[Firehouse.com] reaches out to firefighters in many ways from the forums to the radio shows and seems to build a real sense of community online," said 2006 ASBPE judge. "This site has interactivity built in at every turn; really knocks it out of the park."

Azbee’s 2006 Gold Interactive Community Award credits the entire Firehouse.com team including Associate Publisher Chris Hebert, Director of Sales Mike Natchipolsky, Editor Peter Matthews, News Director Lon Slepicka and Site Manager Eric Smith. The Azbee Awards are presented by ASBPE, making the award especially prominent because it is judged by publishing and editorial peers and recognizes the best in editorial, design, and online achievement.

"This is really a great honor to be recognized by our business community for playing an important role in the lives of our visitors," Firehouse.com Associate Publisher Christopher Hebert said. "Our visitors are what make us a great destination, their involvement in every aspect of our site is critical to providing the resources, news, education and information they need."

"Firehouse.com is honored to be in the company of some very comprehensive community-oriented Web sites," Founder Dave Iannone said. "We are going to continue to add new features and services, including more tie-ins with Firehouse magazine and the Firehouse series of trade shows and conferences, to help us grow even more."

Firehouse.com is visited by more than a half-million fire and rescue service professionals each month, featuring daily breaking news, robust discussion forums, on-demand training, shopping, an employment center, industry search tools and more. The site is one of three online portals for the public safety industry managed by Cygnus Interactive, a division of Cygnus Business Media. EMSResponder.com launched last fall to serve the growing emergency medical services community, and Officer.com is a leading portal for law enforcement professionals.

Cygnus Business Media is a leading, diversified business-to-business media company with a portfolio of over 200 media products reaching five million professionals annually within 15 major markets. Its four distinct divisions -- Cygnus Publishing, Cygnus Expositions, Cygnus Interactive and Cygnus Custom Marketing - provide comprehensive, integrated advertising and marketing programs for Cygnus' valued customers and clients. The company's leading business publications, trade shows, conferences, Web sites, online products and custom marketing capabilities enhance brand identity, generate sales leads, and build product awareness as they strengthen customer/client relationships. <