LOS ANGELES ? A dual-revenue model comprising subscriber and advertiser fees form the backbone of CNN?s emphasis on sustainability for its mobile news channels.

CNN wants its mobile business to be sustainable, and not simply marketing for other online and broadcast channels, CNN vice president of mobile Louis Gump told delegates yesterday at the Mobile Marketing Association?s Mobile Marketing Forum.

?We believe that at some point in time more people will get news from mobile than online,? Mr. Gump told mobile marketers in the audience. ?What I would like to advocate is sustainability [for mobile].

?CNN views mobile as a core part of our company?s future,? he said. ?We?re looking at mobile not only as a way to deliver news, but also to generate news.?

CNN attracts between 11 million and 12 million unique users per month to its mobile Web site. The CNN iPhone application is consistently one of the top news application since its launch Sept. 27.

In this Q&A with Mobile Marketer?s Mickey Alam Khan at the Mobile Marketing Forum, Mr. Gump explains CNN?s approach to mobile news and advertising.

What does mobile sustainability mean for CNN?
To me the starting place is the definition of sustainability. The core of it is that a line of business can stand alone and be successful, including the ability to increase investment in great products.

In the case of CNN, we see a very bright future for mobile. We think it will both reach a wide range of consumers and also contribute to the financial success of CNN in important ways.

So, one of the implications then is to understand not only how we break even, but also from a pure nuts-and-bolts financial basis, generate enough of a return that we can make a major push into mobile content and products.

We are somewhat agnostic about which platform consumers use. It could be mobile Web or a downloadable application or video or a text message or even a combination of those.

If we look back in history at other media platforms, we know that a dual revenue stream is often an important key to success.

For example, we can look at the cable environment where major content providers including companies like CNN, ESPN and The Weather Channel might not have made it had it not been the combination of subscription fees from the cable operations and advertising.

There are many more examples. And so we believe as we have a blank canvas for certain product offerings that we should learn from the past and apply these lessons in mobile.

And finally we will do that even when there is not complete agreement over which business model will prevail.

How are you making CNN?s mobile properties attractive to advertisers?
I would point to three different areas we?re focusing on to make CNN?s mobile offerings attractive to advertisers.

The first is tapping into the size and scope of the audience that naturally gravitates to CNN. We have very attractive demographics in particular with respect to age brackets, income and people who are decision makers.

The second component is that we?re creating ad units that are intentionally designed, after a great deal of thought, to be at least palatable and preferably appealing to our consumers. That, in turn, leads to greater effectiveness to our advertisers.

And thirdly, we are building our mobile advertising team. That includes ad sales, ad products and ad operations.

We know that many of our advertisers already value CNN?s advertising offerings. And we want to make sure that we?re effective in providing, explaining and delivering those products. That is true both for mobile-only ad buys and also cross-platform, including on-air and online.

You?ve worked at The Weather Channel and now you?re at CNN in charge of mobile. What?s your advice for publishers and broadcasters who are trying to wrap their head around mobile?
I was extremely fortunate to arrive at The Weather Channel when some of the formative thinking was happening on the future of mobile.

Now, at CNN, there?s a combination of a strong track record already plus incredible opportunity. I think that a lot of content providers today share similar opportunities.

I would point to a handful of guiding principles for people in various media companies.

The first is to secure executive support for programs, regardless of whether they?re going to be major reach or financial successes in the immediate future.

The next is to find a core of very talented people to drive the growth of mobile in a way that is appropriate for that company.

The third, if a company really wants to work over the medium- to long-term haul, there should be some serious thought about what financial models are likely to be most successful across multiple mobile platforms.

And then, the team must stick to those principles even when the inevitable obstacles come up related to financial success.

Examples of those obstacles include a slower start than one might hope, criticism, which is almost inevitable, or even success that?s far greater than imagined, resulting in delivery challenges due to infrastructure.

The fourth is to prioritize.

For most companies, it takes a considerable amount of time to build a portfolio of products that they can be proud of. Although multiple mobile platforms are important, I would advise that every company build a strong mobile Web site as a foundation.

The last is to start now and to do something.