Urban Firefighter Magazine (aka Urbanfirefighter.com, I will refer to it as UFM in this post) has officially been released. The site is something I have been waiting on for some time. UFM boasts a newer age in delivery of fire training, tactics, and the like.

Connect with UFM on twitter, facebook, rss feed, and google buzz through links in their sidebar.

In my words…

Urban Firefighter Magazine is a refreshing collaboration of some of the best. Not to take away from some other great venues. They offer their content free and online. It is available in print…if you print it out. No postage, no subscriptions, no renewal. As I can see in their first issue they offer some great content (I have not read it front to back quite yet, but I did read some and scan the rest). They are part of the new age in content delivery and acceptance much like some of the blogs you might read day in and day out.

UFM will probably not run some of the greats out of business, but they will give some a run for their money.

Erich Roden and Ray McCormack are the senior editors and have created a stand-up product. Erich maintained the blog TheHousewatch.com which featured writing from Erich and Ray McCormack prior to creating UFM.

FireGeezer gives his synopsis here and Dave Statter offers some words on the project here.

So why the title of the post “The Bandwagon….the new age is upon us”

The reason is because many long time published in print mediums have focused more and more on their online versions. Seeing an ever increasing customer base utilizing the online versions of their publications coupled with decreases in subscriptions, many companies are realizing the need to offer more content online.

In the fire service you can look at Firehouse Magazine, Fire Engineering Magazine, and Fire Rescue Magazine among others offering an online community and/or full content through online subscriptions.

As this occurs, we will see more of the advertising base move to online advertising and a decrease in print advertising. This is great news for someone like me who offers an online news site at VAFireNews.com. The small guys like me have maintained with the few advertisers who have understood the benefits of advertising online with the smaller venues.

What about the blogs?

For instance, UFM is offering blog type content as well. There are many other sites which have created a community of blogs. Together, these communities create a form of an online news site with the culmination of blog content on their homepage. Examples of sites like these are FireEMSBlogs.com and FirefighterNation.com.

Blogs like mine, which are attached to a community of blogs, as well as blogs which are stand alone should begin to see a trickle down effect of advertisers trying to get their claws on our sites.

and so I consider it the bandwagon…a good bandwagon. The process of moving to the online communities that is.

I commend Erich and Ray as well as any and all of their contributors and investors for creating a top notch site/online magazine. I look forward to reading their content and learning from some great firefighters and writers.

If you are interested in advertising information on their site/mag please contact them here.

If you are interested in advertising on the Fire Critic or VAFireNews.com please email me here.