The Nerve’s Carole Cadwalladr, film critic Ellen E Jones, Carol Vorderman and Stewart Lee who spoke on a launch day panel for the new publication: Picture: Ella J. McConville

The Nerve, the new publication launched by former Observer journalists including Carole Cadwalladr, has attracted more than 900 paying subscribers in its first week.

Initial content from the title includes an investigation by Cadwalladr into funding for The Tony Blair Institute, culture recommendations from Oscar-winning actress Nicole Kidman and a first weekly column from comedian Stewart Lee.

The brand has been launched by Cadwalladr, ex-Observer New Review deputy editor Sarah Donaldson, editor Jane Ferguson and senior editor Imogen Carter, and former Observer creative director Lynsey Irvine.

Cadwalladr, who had a long-standing contract arrangement on The Observer, was dropped by new owner Tortoise Media when it was sold by Guardian News and Media earlier this year. The other four women are funding their time on the Nerve using voluntary redundancy payments.

The launch was revealed in Press Gazette last Friday (26 September) and formally announced at 11am that day. A website (thenerve.news) hosted on newsletter platform Beehiiv went live that day and its first newsletter containing five articles was published on Tuesday, 30 September.

By the end of Thursday 2 October, the title had more than 900 paying members and 8,000 free newsletter subscribers.

The Never is understood to be one of the most successful launches on newsletter platform Beehiiv so far.

The Nerve is free to read but it is inviting members who want to support it to join for £6.95 per month, as a founding member for £250 per year, or via a one-off donation – a similar model to The Guardian’s voluntary reader supporters.

Paying members get extra perks: monthly subscribers will get priority booking to events and invitations to “ask us anything” online talks with its journalists, while founding members will also receive a shoutout on a founders’ page and in a print magazine planned for next year.

Founding members are also told their money will “help us with our ambitious plans for a truly independent progressive media”.

The brand also reached 10,300 followers on X, 6,500 on Bluesky and 3,000 on Instagram.

Nerve subscribers ‘hugely exceeded our expectations’

Sarah Donaldson, who is leading the launch, said: “Making the decision to launch the Nerve was hugely daunting. We’ve put our own blood, sweat and redundancy pay into it – it’s a big gamble and we’ve had a frenetic week but we couldn’t be more delighted by the response.

“We’ve hugely exceeded our expectations. We hoped to hit 1,000 paid subscribers – members – by the end of October and instead we’ve done it in less than a week, and we have over 8,000 sign ups to the newsletter. We’ve shown what a small, dedicated, collaborative team of women – who’ve worked together for years – can do.

“In a single day on Tuesday we edited and designed Carole’s investigative piece containing revelations about the funding of the Tony Blair Institute, launched our beta site, hit go on our first newsletter, hosted a panel with Carol Vorderman, Ellen E Jones and Stewart Lee at Liverpool’s Open Eye gallery and threw a soft-launch party afterwards. With hindsight, maybe we should have spread those out a little!

“We’re thrilled that people understand the mission of what we’re doing and are stepping up to support us as we start small and build together with our members. We have so much we can do with a proper community of readers around us and we can’t wait to get on.”

Cadwalladr said: “Sarah Donaldson is a total boss. It was unbelievable what she led this small team to achieve this week.

“But I’m so proud to be part of The Nerve. To be able to do the kind of investigations I love – for our launch I reported on Tony Blair’s financial links to Israeli defence and tech on the day after he was revealed to be part of Trump’s ‘peace board for Israel’ – with a team of incredible editors that I’ve worked with for years is a huge privilege.

“This week, it feels like we ‘showed not told’. With the support of the public, this is exactly the kind of risky and fearless journalism we can do.

“Also: special kudos to Jane Ferguson and Imogen Carter for getting Nicole Kidman for our launch issue. And to Lynsey Irvine for her design, which has landed with huge impact.”

The Nerve was the first UK publication to be part of Beehiiv’s invite-only Media Collective, which provides benefits such as legal support, access to tools like Perplexity Pro and Getty Images, and extra platform support.

[Read more: Newsletter platforms for publishers compared: Substack versus the rest]

Preeya Goenka, chief operating officer at newsletter platform Beehiiv, said: “The reception the Nerve team saw with their soft launch last week was incredible, with just under 1,000 readers helping to fund their mission, a large section of those even before the first edition went out.

“As our first Media Collective expansion outside the US, it really underscores the global demand for independent journalism, and the role Beehiiv can play in equipping those journalists to thrive.”

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