About Spatial Source

Spatial Source

Overview

Spatial Source is an Australian online news service for the geospatial, surveying, GIS and mapping industries, published at spatialsource.com.au by The Intermedia Group. It covers the Australasian spatial sector — its publisher describes its market as Australia and New Zealand — spanning land, engineering, mining, aerial and hydrographic surveying, geographic information systems, remote sensing, positioning technology, Earth observation and the space-data economy, with daily news, interviews, analysis and product coverage. Spatial Source is the digital companion to Position magazine, the long-running print title for the same industry; together the two form the media partnership of the Geospatial Council of Australia, the sector's peak professional body. The site's editor is Jonathan Nally, a long-serving trade journalist whose byline appears across its interviews and features. The service is free to read and is supported by advertising, sponsored content and a free weekly email newsletter.

History

The industry Spatial Source serves has been covered in print by Position magazine, which the publisher's media kits date to 1990; Position is published every two months in print and digital editions and is distributed to subscribers and to all members of the Geospatial Council of Australia. The Spatial Source website was established in June 2010, according to The Intermedia Group's media kit, as the online news channel for the surveying and spatial community in Australia and New Zealand. Over the following decade the site and magazine operated in tandem — long-form features and interviews appearing in Position and republished online, with the website carrying daily news between print issues. The professional bodies behind the industry consolidated in the early 2020s with the formation of the Geospatial Council of Australia, and Position and Spatial Source continued as the council's official media, including coverage of its annual Locate conference, the largest geospatial gathering in the region. In April 2025 Brisbane hosted the combined FIG Working Week and Locate25 conference, which Spatial Source previewed as the biggest geospatial conference held in Australia in more than a decade, drawing approximately 1,500 attendees; the following year's Locate26 was scheduled for Melbourne in November 2026. Publisher media kits issued for 2024 and April 2025 document both titles under The Intermedia Group, with Nally as editor throughout that period.

Programming and Content

Spatial Source organises its coverage into sections including Company & Industry, GIS & Data and New Products. Typical content includes industry and company news — appointments, contracts, product launches such as new LiDAR and field-data systems — alongside policy and professional-regulation reporting, such as its 2026 analysis of surveyors' concerns about the automatic mutual recognition framework for licensed workers, in which Surveyors Australia warned policymakers that state-based licensing barriers were delaying projects in construction, property and resources. Technical explainers are a staple: a multi-part series on AUSPOS, Geoscience Australia's online GPS processing service, examined how survey control networks are maintained, and the site regularly interviews senior figures, including geodesists such as Emeritus Professor Chris Rizos of UNSW, agency executives and the heads of industry bodies such as Before You Dig Australia. Federal budget analysis written for a spatial audience — its 2026–27 budget coverage examined the funding lines for environmental approvals, data and AI — conference reporting from Locate and the FIG Working Week, workforce items such as a Transport for NSW surveying traineeship leading to a Certificate IV in Surveying and Spatial Information Services, and items on the Earth Observation Australia Awards and the twenty-fifth anniversary of the University of Melbourne's Centre for Spatial Data Infrastructures and Land Administration round out the mix. Its preview coverage of the combined FIG Working Week 2025 and Locate25 conferences included interviews with convenor Steve Jacoby, an executive director of spatial information in the Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Mines, and program chair Peter James, illustrating the site's access to senior figures across the profession. Content from Position magazine, including its interviews, is republished on the site, and businesses can place sponsored content and product "Insights" items through the publisher.

Audience and Reach

The audience is the Australasian geospatial and surveying profession: surveyors across land, engineering, mining, aerial and hydrographic disciplines, GIS, geospatial and remote-sensing specialists, cartographers and other mapping professionals, users of navigational and positioning technology, vendor companies, and experts in government and academia, as described in the publisher's media kits. Figures published in The Intermedia Group's Spatial Source media kit, drawn from October 2021, recorded 14,500 unique visitors and about 15,000 page views a month, an email newsletter audience of more than 4,500, and average newsletter open rates of 22 per cent with a 5 per cent click-through rate; the kit described the site as Australia and New Zealand's premier channel for the geospatial, surveying, GIS and mapping community — a publisher's claim, presented as such. For the companion print title, the 2025 media kit gives Position a circulation of 4,500 to 5,000 and an estimated readership above 9,000, distributed to subscribers and all Geospatial Council of Australia members.

Digital Presence

Spatial Source is a digital-native service: its website is updated daily, with front-page stories in October 2026 covering an international award for an Australian spatial leader, robotic mapping research at the University of Queensland, new aerial LiDAR products and the program for November's Locate26 conference in Melbourne. Its free weekly newsletter is sent on Wednesdays, and readers can follow the title through the usual social and professional channels. Articles from Position magazine are archived on the site, giving the print title a permanent digital presence. Commercially, the publisher's media kits offer display advertising across the site, website takeovers and skins, native content packages that bundle sponsored editorial with advertising positions and newsletter inclusion, dedicated product pages, and dedicated email blasts to the newsletter list, alongside print advertising in Position.

Ownership and Organisation

Spatial Source is published by The Intermedia Group, an Australian B2B and specialist media publisher, which also publishes Position magazine; the two titles are sold together in the publisher's media kits, with advertising for Position and Spatial Source handled jointly — in the April 2025 kit, advertising and partnerships for the pair were managed through the Geospatial Council of Australia's national advertising manager, Danielle Nixon, reflecting the titles' status as the council's official media. Position had earlier been the official publication of the Surveying and Spatial Sciences Institute, one of the professional bodies that combined to form the Geospatial Council of Australia. In the publisher's 2024 Spatial Source media kit, national advertising was handled by Anna Muldrock of Intermedia. Editorial responsibility rests with editor Jonathan Nally, whose published contact in the publisher's media kits is jnally@intermedia.com.au; he writes much of the site's interview and feature content, with contributions from industry specialists and guest writers, such as serving spatial-agency staff writing on survey infrastructure. This directory lists the title at Port Melbourne, Victoria; the publisher's media kits give Sydney contact numbers for its editorial and advertising staff.

Contact and Availability

Spatial Source is free to read at spatialsource.com.au, where readers can sign up for the free weekly newsletter. Editorial enquiries can be directed to the editor through The Intermedia Group, and advertising and partnership enquiries for Spatial Source and Position magazine are handled through the contacts published in the titles' media kits, including the Geospatial Council of Australia's national advertising and partnerships manager.