John Newfong was the first Indigenous Australian journalist employed in mainstream newspapers. He worked in various positions within the newspaper industry: at The Australian he was an editorial staffer, he also worked as either feature writer or columnist for the Sydney Morning Herald, The Bulletin, the Brisbane Courier Mail, and overseas publications such as Ebony (an Afro-American magazine), The Guardian, Le Monde, and Nouvelle Africaine. Newfong was editor twice for Identity, a quarterly, which was a platform for Indigenous writers and artists to express themselves in their creative medium. Identity was produced by the Aboriginal Publications Foundation.
In the 1960s, Newfong participated in many of the Australian civil rights campaigns. Leading up to the 1967 referendum, Newfong worked as the secretary for the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islander's (FCAATSI) 1967 referendum campaign in Queensland. He was elected general secretary of FCAATSI in March 1970, but due to his journalistic commitments he resigned later that year in May. Newfong was one of the key people organising the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra, 1972. At the Embassy he told the Federal Opposition Leader, Gough Whitlam, the Embassy's plan for land rights which included control of Northern Territory, legal title and mining rights on land, preservation of sacred sites, compensation monies for unreturnable land and an annual payment from the gross national income.
Later Newfong worked as the Public Relations Director of the Aboriginal Development Commission. While there he and Charles Perkins drew up a petition highlighting the human violation rights the Queensland Aborigines and Torres Strait Islander Act contravened. This petition was handed to Queen Elizabeth by her private Secretary Sir Philip Moore. Newfong was also was a Public Relations Director for Aboriginal Medical Service (in Redfern, Sydney) and the National Aboriginal and Islander Health Organisation.
In 1991, Newfong was elected the inaugural chairperson of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission's (ATSIC) Indigenous Regional Council in south-east Queensland. In later years, Newfong lectured in Townsville at the James Cook University, in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Centre.
