About The Weekly Source

The Weekly Source

Overview

The Weekly Source (styled The Weekly SOURCE) is an Australian business-to-business news service covering the retirement living, aged care and home care industries. Based in Balmain East, in Sydney's inner west, it is written for the people who own, run, finance and advise seniors living businesses: chief executives, directors, senior managers, developers, investors, specialist service providers and government advisers. Its reporting concentrates on the commercial and policy forces shaping the sector — government reform, funding models, property development, mergers and acquisitions, workforce and executive movements — rather than on clinical practice or consumer advice.

The publication describes itself as an independent editorial platform, and its publisher, the DCM Group, describes itself as an independent, privately owned organisation. According to the publication's own About page, it is read by more than 9,000 sector leaders, a figure the publisher presents as its readership measure rather than an audited circulation. The Weekly Source is one of three Australian trade titles serving the aged care economy, and it is distinguished from HelloCare and Aged Care Insite by its executive, investment and operator focus: where those titles address frontline workers, clinicians and families, The Weekly Source addresses the boardroom.

History

The Weekly Source was established in 2008, according to its own About page. It began as a weekly executive email newsletter — hence the "Weekly" in its name — delivering sector intelligence to retirement village and aged care executives at a time when dedicated business coverage of the industry was scarce. Over the following years it evolved from a newsletter into a full news platform publishing daily online, while retaining email briefings as its core distribution channel.

The publication's founder is Chris Baynes, who also founded its parent company, the DCM Group, in 2006 with the launch of the consumer directory villages.com.au. Baynes, a journalist and publisher who has worked in the retirement village and aged care sectors for many years, remains the group's chief executive and acts as publisher of The Weekly Source, contributing opinion and analysis alongside a small editorial team. Journalists whose bylines appear on the site include Lauren Broomham, Caroline Egan and Ian Horswill, and the group has described its editorial team as a five-person operation.

The brand expanded in the early 2020s with SATURDAY, a paid digital magazine of long-form analysis and interviews published fortnightly; a Ryman Healthcare white paper reported to have been launched in SATURDAY in September 2022 dates the title's existence to at least that year. The free twice-weekly newsletters and the website continued alongside it, giving the publisher a tiered model of free news and paid depth.

Content and Coverage

The Weekly Source organises its coverage around the business of ageing. Its standing topics include building and developments, funding and finance, government policy, mergers and acquisitions, sector moves and people, living with dementia, innovation and technology and housing news. Its coverage spans three overlapping industries: retirement living and land lease communities, residential aged care, and home care and in-home support.

A typical news cycle follows the sector's regulatory and commercial calendar. In October 2026, for example, the site reported the federal government's decision to exempt retirement villages and residential aged care from proposed negative gearing restrictions, drawing on Retirement Living Council commentary and explaining the implications for development viability. Other recent coverage has examined the convergence of retirement villages and aged care — including "care suite" models in which higher-care accommodation is embedded in villages — the hospital discharge pressures created by shortages of aged care beds, shared care funding trials with the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, and state-by-state retirement village law reform.

The tone is analytical rather than descriptive: stories are framed around what a policy change, transaction or demographic shift means for operators' strategy, risk and performance. The publication also produces video interviews and podcast-style content with sector figures, and covers the DCM Group's own industry research and events. Regular strands include The Thursday Source, a recurring edition within its news flow, and opinion columns by Baynes and invited sector leaders. Land lease communities — manufactured home estates for over-50s — have become an increasing part of its brief as that segment has grown, with sustained coverage of the legal and investor disputes surrounding large listed operators such as Lifestyle Communities and Ingenia.

The publication also produces the sector's own record of itself: executive appointments, development approvals, village sales and provider results are logged in brief, making the site a working reference for people tracking the industry's commercial movements week to week.

Audience and Reach

The Weekly Source's stated audience is the leadership tier of the seniors living economy: C-suite executives, board directors, senior managers, specialist service providers and government advisers across retirement living, home care and aged care. The publisher states, on its About page as published in 2026, that the platform is read by more than 9,000 such leaders. That figure is the publisher's own measure; no independently audited circulation or traffic figure for the title is published, and none is claimed here.

The paid SATURDAY magazine is aimed at the same executive audience with longer-form material, while the group's consumer directories, villages.com.au and agedcare101.com.au, give the parent company a separate, public-facing reach covering, by the group's account, more than 5,000 listed retirement living and aged care properties nationwide.

Digital Presence

The Weekly Source publishes on a Ghost-based website at theweeklysource.com.au, with news posted daily and organised by topic and sector. Its primary distribution, true to its origins, is email: free newsletters are delivered twice a week to subscribers, supplemented by the subscription-only SATURDAY digital magazine, published fortnightly and sold on monthly or annual terms. Video interviews are distributed through the site and YouTube.

The site was actively publishing during the preparation of this profile, with news dated October 2026 on its homepage, including coverage published on 14 October 2026. Directory listings of Australian newsletters describe it as delivering "trusted news, insights, and analysis for retirement living, home care, and aged care professionals".

Ownership and Organisation

The Weekly Source is published by The DCM Group, part of DCM Media, and sits under the DCM Group umbrella alongside the group's other businesses. The DCM Group, founded in 2006 by Chris Baynes, describes itself as Australia's provider of integrated media, research, recruitment and training services for the retirement living, home care and aged care sectors. Its activities comprise media (The Weekly Source and SATURDAY), consumer directories (villages.com.au and agedcare101.com.au), professional development through the DCM Institute, established in 2019 to train retirement village managers, executive recruitment through DCM Executive Recruitment, and events, led by the LEADERS SUMMIT, the sector strategy conference the group runs annually.

The publishing operation is small and specialist. Chris Baynes is chief executive of the group and publisher and editor of the title, supported by a small team of journalists and contributors drawn from the sector itself. The group's own author profiles credit Baynes with visiting more than 250 retirement villages and 50 aged care facilities in Australia and overseas, and he is a regular speaker at industry conferences and a frequent radio commentator on seniors living issues, experience the group markets as the foundation of its sector intelligence.

Contact and Availability

The Weekly Source is published from the DCM Group's offices at Waterview Wharf Workshops, Units 18 and 19, 37 Nicholson Street, Balmain East NSW 2041, Australia. The office can be reached by telephone on (02) 9555 9576 from within Australia, or +61 2 9555 9576 internationally, and contact, advertising and partnership enquiries are handled through the contact page on theweeklysource.com.au. The twice-weekly newsletters are free on subscription through the website; SATURDAY is a paid subscription. The publication's website, newsletters and magazine are available Australia-wide.