I don&#x27;t know the intended <i>goal</i>. It might just be clicks or page views, but what typically happens is:<p>- Article launches with sensational, buzzfeed quality linkbait headline.<p>- Article gets lots of clicks<p>- The title is quietly changed to a more restrained version which often matches the print edition title.<p>At first I thought there must just be different editors overseeing the web and print editions, but now I think it&#x27;s an intentional form of viral marketing or activist editing.<p>In some cases, the sensational headlines really diminish the journalistic quality&#x2F;seriousness of the article, or create the impression that a minor point in the article was the main thrust of the article.<p>Similarly, there has occasionally been a headline that appears intentionally boring so that the paper can publish a story but effectively hide it from view.<p>So in a nutshell it&#x27;s classic misdirection, enabled by the digital medium, since tracks can be fairly easily covered making it harder for those who care&#x2F;notice to call attention to it.  For a while I thought about creating a screenshot archive of changed titles but eventually just stopped reading the paper.