Ten years ago, in a spare bedroom, a team of … er, well, myself and Chris Hebert (with the help of the elusive Travis Good), started a little site called Firehouse.com. Since then, it’s become the largest Web portal for the fire service.

Two years later, Paul Andrews joined us and helped us turn our ideas into revenue as our sales ace. We covered the fire service from every perspective, through Worcester and 9/11, the launch of the Fire ACT grants program, Ladder 49 and more. We also acquired and grew portals in law enforcement and EMS.

In the last few years, we’ve all gone our separate ways. Chris stayed at Cygnus to lead the online efforts of the public safety group, while Paul moved on to the Praetorian group and its public safety offerings. Aside from launching Firefighter Nation, I’ve spent most of the last two years driving magazine brands online as a consultant and specifically the last 18 months as Director of Interactive Business Strategy for Red 7 Media, which has the leading brands in the magazine and live event world.

I’m pleased to announce -- just as Firefighter Nation tops 25,000 registered members -- the band is back together.

With the signing of several agreements with leading publishers -- including FOLIO: parent (and my most recent employer) Red 7 -- Go Forward Media has been born. The company will provide strategic and operational management for publishing and niche brands.

Paul joins me as Vice President of eMedia Sales Development, with Chris as Vice President of Content and Operations.

One of our primary objectives will also be growing Firefighter Nation -- and there are some great features, additions and more coming. On top of that, we'll be adding new content and community products in the fire service in 2009 -- both within FFN and far beyond.

Also joining me are some of the best people and companies I’ve worked with over the years, including Randy Funke as my Development Manager and Sung Hee Kim as Creative Director (along with her kick ass design team). Plus Theresa Hoglander, Hank Mitchell and Matt Kovalakides – just for starters. And as usual, a good chunk of the team (me, Chris, Theresa and Matt), has a fire service background.

To read the full news release, please click here.

To learn more about Go Forward Media, logon to http://www.GoForwardMedia.com. Stay tuned for announcements about our first clients and more!

Thanks!
Dave