“I like it.” Kaid Benfield, Natural Resources Defense Council/The Atlantic Cities

“Rustwire.com is great.” –Crain’s Cleveland

“The “rust is chic” movement has been around for a while, but thanks to blogs and online magazines, such as RustWire.com, a certain fascination with places that have fallen on hard times like the Rust Belt — which stretches from the Midwest through the mid-Atlantic and up into the Northeast — has taken hold.”

–Governing Magazine

“The rustwire.com site [Kate] and Angie have developed is livelier, more visually appealing and more journalistic than most newspaper sites – packed with interviews, news reports and smart features on sports teams, the arts, the auto industry, buying local, local currency movements, issues with vacant and abandoned houses, trains and old train stations, sprawl, urban farms and all things rusty and optimistic.”

–From the book “The Death and Life of American Journalism: The Media Revolution That Will Begin the World Again” by Robert W. McChesney and John Nichols (on Amazon)

“Outstanding blog” — Whet Moser, The Chicago Reader.

“Good post,” — Carl Lavin, Managing Editor, Forbes

“Good read” and “a great source of news and insightful essays about the Rust Belt from the viewpoint of championing its resurgence without too much sugar coating.”– Aaron M. Renn, The Urbanophile blog

“Always excellent”- -Grist.org

“the site is representative of how a site that covers an underreported topic of importance and covers it well can have an impact.” – Columbia Journalism Review’s News Frontier Database

Feedback from readers on our reader survey:

“Lots of news I can’t get elsewhere,”

“I’m amazed at how well and how quickly Rust Wire established itself as the voice of the progressive Rust Belt.”

“I love the honest yet optimistic perspective of the Rust Belt and its many complexities.”

“Overall, I just love the premise of the site. ‘City reporting’ is usually dominated by the usual suspects: New York, San Francisco, LA, etc. I like seeing sympathetic coverage of the cities that you don’t hear about as often. ”

“Does anyone else really cover great lakes/rust belt cities so well?”