50th Issue Marks 25 Years for Toro's Newslines

Launched in the pre-digital age when print was king, and the web and social media weren’t even a click on the horizon, Newslines has embraced change throughout its quarter of a century journey to maintain the interest and loyalty of readers. 

Initially, Toro Newslines was for the golf course industry exclusively. But later this expanded with stories about Toro equipment being used in stadiums, grounds and other sports and fine turf applications. These included football, rugby, cricket, tennis and bowls. 

Golf customers such as St Andrews Links, Turnbury, Carnoustie, The Belfry, Wentworth and Celtic Manor, as well as a host of other clubs big and small have been featured in the publication’s pages. Likewise, in sport, top names have included most Premier League football clubs such as Manchester United, Manchester City, Spurs, Chelsea and West Ham, while other famous venues have included Old Trafford, Edgbaston and Surrey from the world of cricket, along with Wimbledon, Newmarket races and many more from other sports.

The front covers of Newslines brilliantly illustrate its 25-year history by capturing the spirit of years gone by through their portrayal of some the biggest names in the turf industry, such as Keith Kent of Manchester United and Twickenham, Eddie Seaward at Wimbledon and Alan Ferguson, then head groundsman at Ipswich in the Premier League. Added to this the covers that feature many of our greatest sporting stars from down the years, including Tiger Woods, David Beckham, Freddie Flintoff, Thierry Henry, Nasser Hussein and Pete Sampras.

At first, coverage was for Toro turf maintenance machinery such as mowers, aerators and utility vehicles, but later a two-page ‘Solutions at work’ insert was added to give readers coverage of Toro irrigation systems, too. Subjects have since expanded to include other product lines sold by Toro distributor Reesink Turfcare, namely Otterbine pond and lake aerators and TYM compact tractors.

Continuous restyles and updates in design, layout and editorial content have kept the publication looking and feeling fresh, modern and relevant to its audience at all times. Put all that together and you have a publication that 50 issues later is still going strong, has won awards, produced a digital version and resulted in a similar publication for the Groundscare audience too. 

Exceptionally, Newslines can proudly claim never to have missed a single issue throughout its 25-year history, with an edition every spring and summer for over a quarter of a century.