Fairfax appears to be the clear winner in Australia’s app battle with more than 400,000 people reported to be using its two flagship apps.

Findings by Roy Morgan Research showed 221,000 Australians aged 14+ reported using the Sydney Morning Herald’s app in the previous seven days, while 199,000 used The Age’s app.

Apps produced by The Australian, the Herald Sun and the Daily/Sunday Telegraph were also popular, but rated in the tens of thousands.

Readers in New South Wales (including the ACT) registered the highest usage of newspaper apps, while the 25-34 age group had the highest proportion of users.

Newspapers: a multimedia experience

The researchers say people who use newspaper apps also tend to engage regularly with the same newspaper mastheads in other forms and across platforms – particularly via the internet, but also in print.

Of the Sydney Morning Herald’s app users, 86 per cent also accessed the newspaper’s website in an average seven-day period.

Roy Morgan Research media industry director George Pesutto  says newspaper publishers would be pleased to know that a significant portion of their audience accesses their content across a variety of platforms.

“Never have so many Australians read these mastheads – albeit in multiple formats. Now the real challenge for publishers is how to leverage this massive audience of news junkies to generate revenue.

“The answer is proving far more complex than keeping and growing readership.”

• Source:Roy Morgan Single Source (Australia), January 2012 – December 2012 (n = 21,275).