Journalists don't choose the clickbait headlines and generally don't care for them; they are business decisions, especially for any site that makes money via ad

Journalists don't choose the clickbait headlines and generally don't care for them; they are business decisions, especially for any site that makes money via ad clicks. They even do A/B testing: initially some visitors are shown headine A, others see headline B. If B gets more clicks, A is dropped.