News Corp Australia
News Corp Australia is one of Australia’s largest media organisations, producing news, sport, and entertainment content across newspapers, digital platforms, and broadcasting channels. The company owns and operates major publications and digital brands, delivering news and advertising solutions to millions of Australians while supporting businesses with national and local marketing reach.
Date posted
March 6, 2026
Company
News Corp Australia
Their challenge for Proforce
News Corp Australia needed to transform its fragmented national sales structure, which consisted of around 400 geographically dispersed salespeople focused on single-product offerings such as print advertising, digital subscriptions, or classifieds. The company aimed to consolidate these siloed teams into a single, high-performance national sales hub capable of cross-selling across its full media portfolio.
To achieve this, ProForce Australia was engaged to rapidly recruit, train, and restructure the workforce into a centralised 90-person sales team based in Sydney. The objective was to reduce operational overheads, improve collaboration, and significantly increase multi-product revenue by enabling a unified sales approach across print, digital, and real estate advertising solutions.
Who are News Corp Australia?
News Corp Australia is one of Australia’s largest media companies, producing news, sport, and entertainment content across newspapers, digital platforms, and subscription services. The company owns major national and regional publications and provides advertising and media solutions to businesses, reaching millions of readers across Australiathrough print, digital, and video channels.
What solution was built to address the issue?
News Corp Australia partnered with ProForce Australia to transform its fragmented national sales force. The organisation shifted from a model of 400 geographically dispersed salespeople each focused on single-product offerings such as print advertising, digital subscriptions, or classifieds into a centralised 90-person cross-selling sales team based in a single national hub in Sydney.
Through ProForce’s high-velocity recruitment and training model, the four-week “Sales ReForge” initiative rapidly restructured the workforce, significantly reducing operational overheads while increasing multi-product revenue. The new model enabled a unified sales approach, allowing teams to bundle digital, print, and real estate advertising solutions to deliver greater value to clients and drive stronger commercial performance.
Week 1: Rapid Audit and Recruitment Kickoff
ProForce Australia began the transformation by conducting a rapid audit of News Corp Australia’s existing sales organisation. Using CRM data and performance metrics, consultants identified the top 30% of performers approximately 27 high-performing salespeople to be retained as part of the new team, while the remaining workforce was transitioned through structured and incentivised exit programs.
At the same time, ProForce launched accelerated “ReForge Education Days” at major Australian universities, including University of Sydney and University of Melbourne, assessing more than 1,500 graduates within 72 hours. Candidates completed cross-selling pitches (e.g., bundling digital news subscriptions with property listings), team-based simulations, and aptitude testing. The top 2% of candidates around 63 hires were selected to join the 27 retained employees, forming a 90-person national sales team.
All new hires were onboarded virtually by the end of the week, with a centralised Sydney hub established featuring open-plan sales pods and shared digital screens to support real-time deal collaboration and a unified cross-selling approach.
Week 2: Core Cross-Sell Bootcamp (Modules 1-2)
The 90-person team comprised of approximately 70% graduates and 30% experienced sales professionals—undertook a compressed training program delivered by ProForce Australia. The program focused on equipping the team with the skills required to sell across News Corp Australia’s full media portfolio.
Sales Essentials: DISC-adapted pitching techniques tailored for media buyers, alongside assertive multi-channel outreach strategies across email, LinkedIn, and phone.
Solution Selling: Applying SPIN questioning to uncover agency needs (e.g., identifying gaps in premium digital audience reach) and bundling advertising solutions across News Corp publications, Dow Jones & Company digital assets, and REA Group platforms.
Experienced sales professionals mentored graduates throughout the process, while live role-play sessions simulated cross-selling scenarios such as combining print advertising with digital subscriptions. The team was organised into nine pods of ten, operating as product-agnostic sales units and working towards shared targets. This collaborative structure delivered a 120% uplift in cross-sell revenue compared with the previous siloed sales model.
Week 3: Advanced Cross-Sell and Tech Integration (Modules 3-4)
The program then ramped up to high-intensity sales drills, designed to strengthen cross-selling capability and account management across News Corp Australia’s media portfolio.
Creating Value & Negotiation: Training focused on value-stacking across media assets—for example combining premium digital news placements with property advertising through REA Group—to demonstrate stronger campaign ROI. Reps were also trained to confidently manage objections from agencies already working with competing media providers.
Essential Account Management: Sales teams developed advanced CRM capabilities using Salesforce to manage national account handovers, alongside account-based marketing (ABM) strategies targeting the top 500 advertisers.
ProForce Australia implemented real-time dashboards to track key pod KPIs, including cross-sell ratios and pipeline velocity. Each pod collectively conducted over 200 agency outreach calls per day, with early results showing approximately 20% adoption of bundled media packages. A strong collaborative culture was reinforced through gamified leaderboards, ensuring teams worked together toward shared outcomes rather than operating as individual sellers.
Week 4: Go-Live and Hyper-Scale
The final module, “Building High-Performing Teams,” focused on strengthening pod accountability and reinforcing a collaborative sales culture across the organisation. The full sales team then launched from the centralised Sydney hub, managing all Australia-wide client accounts through a unified structure supported by remote engagement tools for client meetings and presentations.
ProForce Australia embedded two sales coaches within News Corp Australia for the first 90 days post-launch to support performance, refine cross-selling techniques, and ensure the new operating model was successfully embedded.
The transformation delivered significant results, including 75% cost savings through the consolidation of 400 sales roles into a 90-person national team, 150% faster deal cycles driven by cross-selling velocity, and a strong uplift in first-quarter revenue through bundled offerings such as digital subscriptions combined with advertising packages. The centralised structure was ultimately adopted as News Corp’s “One Team” sales model, supported by an ongoing pipeline of talent developed through the ProForce alumni network.