Tonight the popular San Francisco-based Pop-Up Magazine brings its live “magazine” stage show to New York’s Skirball Center as part of a collaboration with ESPN Magazine. As described in Fast Company the event consists of “Contributors to The New Yorker, This American Life, Wired, Slate, and other publications will get onstage at the Skirball Center for a one-night event, a ‘magazine’ that is performed just once.” Additionally, and significantly, one of the event’s key features is that none of its content is published or made available online.

The event’s founder, Douglas McGray insists that “I would not call it a reaction to some of the stresses on the media business….It was really an idealistic venture, honestly.” However, I can’t help but feel that the event (and its success) is a direct response to some of the problems facing journalism and publishing. The history of the internet is the history of the devaluation of content. The music industry tanked. Newspapers failed. Publishers face a new world of 99 cent eBooks and slashed Amazon prices, not to mention BitTorrents offering thousands of pirated bestsellers at the press of a button. When the CD market crashed, the music industry responded with a new emphasis on live tours, on creating experiences that could not be ripped and downloaded. It’s hard not to see the Pop-Up Magazine as an attempt to create a similar exclusivity for the world of journalism. People can’t steal or view the Pop-Up Magazine unless they leave their homes… and actually spend money.

It’s an innovative concept and, most likely, an enjoyable evening. Perhaps it offers some new insights into how to finance content. However, only a limited number of New Yorkers will be able to witness the event’s qualities and significance—a limitation which both strengthens and weakens its journalistic power.