Mediagazer: Sources: formal FCC staff recommendation to the commissioners on AT&T-DirectTV deal could come as early as next week (Brian Stelter/CNNMoney)

5:15 PM ET, June 5, 2015

Top News:

Days before Apple plans to reveal its music streaming service, Apple is still negotiating with record labels, who are pushing for 60% of proceeds — Apple's Pushing to Complete Streaming Music Deal Before Event — Just days before Apple Inc. plans to reveal a music streaming service …

Discussion: TechCrunch, AppleInsider, The Verge, Engadget, Business Insider, Variety, ZDNet, App Advice, TIME, Music Ally, MacRumors and The Next Web

Financial Times:

Apple likely to reduce 30% subscription fee for music, video, and publishers using Newsstand — Apple rewrites app store economics — Apple is planning a departure from the pricing formula that has defined the economics of digital media for a decade, which would cut the 30 per cent fee music …

Discussion: VentureBeat, @pkafka, Variety, Fortune and 9to5Mac

Brian Stelter / CNNMoney:

Sources: formal FCC staff recommendation to the commissioners on AT&T-DirectTV deal could come as early as next week — AT&T, DirecTV executives meet with regulators about deal — Top executives from the two companies met with Federal Communications Commission staffers in Washington on Thursday …

Discussion: Washington Post, The Verge, Forbes and Techdirt

Anna Clark / Columbia Journalism Review:

Columnist builds a Facebook following of 130k by sharing news and civil discussion — How Connie Schultz built a unique community on Facebook — In an era when journalists feel pressure to use social media to build their personal brands, Connie Schultz has done something far more interesting.

Discussion: @annaleighclark, @ebnert, @mediadissector and US News

Alan D. Mutter / Reflections of a Newsosaur:

One of every four news startups listed in Columbia Journalism Review database since 2010 has failed — 1 of 4 news start-ups flamed out — In 2009, David Boraks wrote an inspiring guest post here about the launch of his hyper-local news site in Davidson County, NC.

Discussion: @markcoddington, @lionpubs, @jkristufek and @timmcdougall13

Ruth Reader / VentureBeat:

Genius launches an API so developers can help fuel its mission to annotate the Web — Twisted Agile: We're taking elements Agile dev and shaking it up with savvy best practices for better, faster outcomes. Sign up for our free webinar on June 11 at 10 a.m. PST/11 p.m. EST.

Discussion: GENIUS ENGINEERING and TechCrunch

Jason Abbruzzese / Mashable:

Fusion, Re/Code, and Vox demonstrate that scale is vital for new media startups to survive — Fusion, Re/code, Vox and what it takes to survive as a media startup — After what seemed like years of blue skies and growing traffic, recent stumbles have led to rumblings that the optimism …

Discussion: @jacklizmi, @christhilk, @mikeisaac, @herbscribner, @hblodget, @rafat, @samanthamcgarry, @jpmanga, @herbscribner, @petersterne and @fromedome

Abigail Edge / Journalism.co.uk:

The New York Times uses Reddit to measure engagement and understand reader response to its stories — How NYT is using Reddit to gain insights into its audience — The Times' director of analytics innovation shared how the outlet aims to ‘bring the audience into the newsroom’, speaking at the World News Media Congress

Jordan Crook / TechCrunch:

Instapaper Launches ‘Notes’ To Let Users Annotate Text — Instapaper, the app that lets you save and share online articles, has just launched a new annotation functionality called Notes. — The feature allows users to select a piece of text from an article or other work, and make comments on that text.

Discussion: MacStories

Glenn Peoples / Billboard:

Spotify Royalties Grew to $300 Million in First Quarter — Spotify may have its critics, but the embattled music subscription service can routinely point to growing pile of royalties it has paid to rights holders. Billboard has learned the music subscription company paid out $300 million …

Discussion: RAIN News and Wall Street Journal

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:

FCC vote on local franchise fees for basic cable TV helps both big and small providers — FCC helps big and small cable TV providers avoid rate regulation — Vote declares cable TV faces competition nationwide; cable companies rejoice. — Cities and towns will have a more difficult …

Agence France-Presse:

Kuwait shuts private TV station critical of government — Kuwait on Thursday closed the privately-run Al-Watan satellite television channel, which has been critical of the government, citing financial reasons. The commerce and industry ministry said it has revoked the commercial licence …

Discussion: The Express TribuneThe …