A tale of two new audiences
According to his PR spin, Norman Lebrecht’s blog Slipped Disc is the world’s #1 cultural news site, drawing 2 million readers every month . Central to Norman's strategy for building an audience is the use of controversial techniques alien to the predominantly conservative classical music world. These include salacious headlines , innuendo, gossip, and deliberate provocation . Meanwhile the new CEO of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Emma Stenning has embarked on a strategy for building an audience using controversial techniques alien to the predominantly conservative classical music world. These include multi-media concerts , photography during concerts, and drinks in the auditorium. Slipped Disc 's use of alien audience-building techniques draws not a whisper of disapproval. But Ms Stenning's use of alien audience-building techniques prompts howls of disapproval from the same predominantly conservative classical music world. Moreover the howls of disap