CNN is planting its own flag in the ever-growing creators economy.

The network’s international division revealed a new initiative on Thursday to create a unit, titled CNN Creators, based out of its newly launched Middle East hub in Media City Qatar, Doha as well as a 30-minute weekly show bowing on Oct. 23 with that same branding.

CNN international exec Meara Erdozain stated that the show “is unlike any show we have ever launched” and “will reflect how our younger audiences are engaging with stories and will deliver compelling, entertaining content in a multitude of ways. It will focus on news-adjacent topics and stories that feel real, relevant, and relatable.”

Andrew Potter, formerly a Vice Media producer, will lead the team with a focus on “AI, tech, art, culture, sport, and social trends,” the company said.

The launch of what’s promised to be a new format for the network arrives CNN undergoes a new round of digital reimagining. A standalone subscription product (the first major effort from the network since the quickly-shuttered CNN+ app in 2022) is set to bow this fall as the company tests a metered paywall on its digital content.

Since former New York Times business chief Mark Thompson joined CNN just over two years ago, the exec been aiming to chart a new course for the network beyond its 24/7 cable TV roots. In January, Thompson unveiled a major restructuring that cut hundreds of jobs and put open job listings up for the pivot to, as he put it, “shift CNN’s gravity towards the platforms and products where the audience themselves are shifting” while investing $70 million in that effort.

The company has relaunched CNN Audio as CNN Podcasts as it expands its slate of shows and brought on a slew of new executive-level hires to manage and reimagine its digital operation (with nearly 75 million monthly uniques it’s one of the few sites that can compete with the Times‘ scale). It also unveiled plans to bolt-on new lifestyle offerings and further integrate its linear and streaming programming teams.

The launch of CNN Creators appears to be one small piece of the new strategy, even as its rollout announcement reminds of another network digital innovation from eons ago: “iReport for CNN.”

That 2000s era Time Warner bet also had an international TV show component — “an interactive, international monthly half-hour TV program showcasing the most newsworthy and informative iReport contributions and citizen journalism reports on the internet” — as sort of a pre-social media look at what indie creators could report on.

This time, however, the creators are veteran producers with journalism backgrounds. Yet the end product sounds like it’ll be different than the traditional news anchor desk presentation. A job listing for a role on the team describes a series that sounds like something a digital media studio might produce.

“The weekly linear show is a high-stakes storytelling challenge where two teams of content creators go head-to-head. At the start of the week, they choose a topic to tackle and set out to craft the most compelling stories around that topic,” it reads. “Viewers get a front-row seat to their creative process — brainstorming, scripting, filming, editing, and refining their work — before the teams present their final pieces in an energetic live showdown.”