If you don't read articles - why?

[Think. Again.]

13. Yes, newspapers were originally sources of current information for the populace, sprinkled with paid advertisments....

....the article headlines served the same purpose as any title of any informational writing, to briefly inform the prospective reader of the content within.

Edit to add:

Not everything in life has always been a sales tactic of some kind, that's a relatively new result of malignant capitalism. Articles did not need headlines as "advertisments", the subject matter summarized in the headline of any given article either honestly attracted the interest of a potential reader or it didn't. What "sold" the newspaper was the promise of all sorts of reports on all sorts of "new" occurrences relevant to the average citizen. No clickbait needed.