UK newsletter-first news start-up The Nerve is preparing to celebrate a year since launch with special events, and even a print magazine. Co-founder Sarah Donaldson shares why they’ve seen such early success, the upcoming launch of a print ‘zine, and how the brand is on the brink of financial sustainability.
The Nerve was launched in September 2025 by a group of five former Observer Sunday paper journalists; Carole Cadwalladr, Lynsey Irvine, Sarah Donaldson, Jane Ferguson and Imogen Carter. All previously worked together at the Observer, and came together to launch the newsbrand after the Observer’s controversial sale by the Guardian to Tortoise Media in April 2025.
Donaldson joined The Publisher Podcast this week to expand on her session at The Publisher Summit earlier this year about the opportunities the women spotted to launch a news and culture brand, which audience touchpoints they decided to focus on, and why The Nerve has resonated strongly so early on.
When news of the Observer’s proposed sale was shared with staff in September 2024, a group of the paper’s journalists came together to propose some alternative strategies. This gave them vital insight into the media landscape, and what to do if setting something up from scratch.
“The whole process of the Observer leaving the Guardian…was a very useful exercise if you’re going to be setting up a new journalistic project, because we all spent a lot of time thinking what the future of the Observer would be if the journalists had had more input into the plans,” Donaldson said, explaining that much of the legwork for a digital-first brand had been done before the sale.
“It [feels] like this is a very significant moment for news journalism. You can see with all the big brands pivoting to video, SEO’s collapsed, the business model we’ve all been operating on for the past decade or so is just completely changing, and the strategy at the Observer didn’t really reflect that.”
The news landscape may be very well served, but Donaldson noted that it’s also an important moment for independent journalism, with diminishing trust – for good and bad reasons – across ‘mainstream’ media brands. As part of this, she acknowledged they couldn’t simply launch a news brand that repackaged and commented on stories.
“We really thought that there was an opening for a brand that really focused on investigations around very, very few key topics, the ones which are clearly the most important and consequential, and to still mix it with culture,” she outlined.
Near sustainability after early success
The Nerve launched as a free-to-read newsletter-first publication on 30th September 2025 from a fringe event at the Labour Party conference. They describe their beat as culture, politics and technology, believing that strong culture coverage is key to understanding an increasingly chaotic world.
Despite the journalism being available to read without a paywall, people flocked to support The Nerve financially. In less than a week after launching, it had hit 8,000 sign-ups and more than 1,000 paying members through a voluntary donation scheme.
Members can pay £6.95 monthly or £68 annually. There is also a ‘Founder Member’ tier for those who wish to give extra support for £250 a year. “We’ve got over 400 people who have given us £250 a year, which is really extraordinary,” Donaldson commented.
Donaldson declined to share current subscriber figures, but said that sustainability was within reach. “We’re really close to being sustainable for the model that we’ve got now and the outgoings we’re covering now,” she shared. “With a couple of tweaks, we’re sustainable now.”
The brand also boasts a strong conversion rate, with Donaldson sharing that the percentage of free newsletter subscribers that convert to paid membership has consistently remained around 13%; far higher than industry averages. This was initially dismissed as early interest, but has sustained over the first year.
Although the early success took the team by surprise, Donaldson speculated that many of the headlines around the Observer sale and strikes had garnered some sympathy for their cause. This meant people were following what happened next, and were clearly willing to support a new, independent outlet.
It also helped that the founding team, led by Carole Cadwalladr, had played a key role in exposing the Cambridge Analytica and Facebook data scandal in 2018, a pivotal moment in the global public’s perception of Big Tech and social media.
Cadwalladr herself has a substantial online following of those interested in her investigative work. “Carole is really good at translating something that’s quite dry and technical into a story that people can really understand, and she’s continued to dig into that stuff ever since,” Donaldson explained. “So when we launched, there was a ready audience for what we were doing”
Donaldson said that ironically, the successful launch put a lot more early pressure on the team than anticipated, as strong reporting needed to follow very quickly. “But we’ve continued to grow really steadily with a few big spikes around investigations that we’ve done,” she shared.
The financial boost meant they could expand their network of contributors and columnists far earlier than anticipated. Columnists include Deborah Frances-White, Cory Doctorow and Sangita Myska, alongside prominent contributing editors from Adjoa Andoh to Carol Vorderman and Michael Sheen.
Newsletter-first model
There were two other trends which Donaldson credits the success of The Nerve to. First is the availability and ease of platforms to launch editorially-led newsletters. Using Beehiiv, the team were able to create a bold, slick newsletter design which published to a website as well as to inboxes, alongside integrated tools for member payments. This is something that even a few years ago would have required multiple platforms.
But it is also more apparent than ever how much personalities and voices in journalism matter. “You’ve got to have a relationship with your audience, the audience has to know who the journalists are and [you have to] show your workings,” Donaldson highlighted.
The Nerve encourages direct communication with audiences through the newsletter. “They can just reply to the email… It’s very different to the old Guardian/Observer site where all the interaction with the reader is below the line, under the journalism.”
Crucially though, being newsletter-first has paved the way to fast sustainability for an outlet able to remain lean. “You don’t need to spend millions,” Donaldson emphasised. “We’ve proved we can deliver our journalism in a very low-cost way. It’s very liberating.”
Beyond the newsletter
Although the newsletter remains the primary delivery mechanism for The Nerve’s journalism, they have also expanded quickly into events. Becoming a member gives access to early and discounted booking for these events, as well as town squares with Nerve journalists, exclusive screenings and link-ups with other events where members get benefits and discounts.
Despite its launch at a political conference, the majority of partnerships have been with cultural events such as book and music festivals. At the end of September, The Nerve is involved with Vision Festival in London’s Kings Cross, bringing together cultural and scientific institutions in the area like the British LIbrary and the Francis Crick Institute. “We’re doing a Nerve Live journalism morning at that, which members get discounted tickets to,” Donaldson noted.
However they have also been careful not to just have events in London. Donaldson said that they had held or partnered with events across the country, from Liverpool, Manchester and Bristol to Brighton and Wales.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the team’s print roots, a magazine is in the works. The Nerve are launching their first ‘zine’ for founder members at their upcoming anniversary party. The Nerve Magazine will be a mix of already-published and exclusive pieces, with more long-reads and culture than news. Under current plans, it will continue to be published twice a year after September.
“Print is very much not dead,” Donaldson laughed, describing their reasons for launching a physical product. “We’ve met quite a lot of people who’ve had great success with small-run, high-end magazines…there is an appetite for something that you can have with you for a while.”
Other plans for year two include expansion into podcasts, and more investigative coverage. But Donaldson is also cautious about moving too quickly. “It’s really important to build your team very carefully… All the big brands are cutting their output because it’s just not necessary to produce so much journalism, it’s what’s the important journalism,” she emphasised.
For now, the team has managed to produce consistently high-quality journalism on a relatively small budget, building a near-sustainable business from scratch. Donaldson is keen to keep the discipline the team started with around spending.
“The best thing about starting with no money is you don’t spend all the money,” she acknowledged. “You really have to make all your decisions very carefully around what you’re going to invest in.”
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