Meta: when did this clickbait formulation of headlines become the norm even for serious, reputable news?
I still find it grating, and avoid articles headlined this way.
I still find it grating, and avoid articles headlined this way.
I don't see a strong argument that changing "man" to "he" transforms this into a clickbait headline. More modern style of headline yes, but clickbait I don't see.
When clicks and ad views became the target for news outlets.
The natural human response is to to click through to find out who 'He' refers to, even if they have no other interest in the story.
Bloomberg could just as easily have written 'Craig Wright' instead.
The result is, as you say, a statement that serves only as an advertisement of sorts to click into the story, without carrying actual information.
Before there were clicks to bait. The only thing that makes it not a traditional headline is the length, and “He” instead of “man”.
In the United States sensationalistic headlines were part of the "Yellow Journalism" trend in the late 1800s - this is how Pulitzer and Hearst got their starts. Britain perfected the art of the tabloid headline, so much so that it exported some of its best writers to Australia and the United States, which is how Rupert Murdoch was able to expand.
Advertisers used similar techniques, leveraging current events and sensationalism to grab eyeballs and customers. A few years ago I found this example (https://www.digitalmediamachine.com/2016/11/a-history-of-cli..., scroll to the bottom) in a regional newspaper in western NY while doing genealogical research. It was from 1904.
See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emulex_hoax for an example of fabricated news causing massive changes to stock price.