The relationship between readers and newspapers is vital, and the feedback from readers sets the course of any publication. But what happens when one party decides to exploit this relationship and the other takes the bait?A campaign was launched on social media platforms last week. It originated from the Turkish website Ekşisözlük, but was quickly adopted by a relatively large mass of social media users. The slogan was simple: "We are not clicking on misleading headlines." Aimed at criticizing the Internet media company's use of "clickbait," purposely sensationalized or misleading headlines that encourage individuals to click them out of curiosity, the campaign was shared on Facebook and Twitter. Several Turkish media organizations reported on the campaign and some expressed their support.Currently, the campaign features a Twitter account that exposes misleading links in order to both warn the public and raise awareness. As a private citizen, I applaud their efforts; as a journalist, though, I want to address this effort and why it has become necessary to take such drastic measures.There is a mistaken understanding that circulation revenues are the main lifeline of a media organization. However, from a financial standpoint, advertisement revenue easily doubles or – at its height in 2005 – quadruples the revenue generated from circulation. According to the Pew Research Center, this has been the case since at least 1979. We can discuss the causes and effects of such difference, but for now I would like to highlight a critical point. Newspaper circulation depends on the media outlet's carefully gained credibility and reader base. Circulation is a very big factor on how much ad revenue a newspaper generates, but its results are not as short-term as we observe with Internet media.On the websites of many major media outlets, you can observe many different advertisements. Some are featured on the home page and some are on the page of a specific news article. The number of clicks affects both how much money a website generates and it makes them a more viable option to reach the masses in the eyes of the companies that are advertising on that platform. So, the clicks – or in other words, the circulation – of these websites have a very lucrative short-term effect. Since the Internet media company hosting the ad can boost the number of clicks with a single interesting article, many websites have adopted sensationalist, "clickbait" headlines. These companies have not stopped there either. As the sector has grown increasingly competitive and content innumerable, the headlines turned into questions to which a reader can only learn the answer by reading the often underwhelming content. The headlines and spots that were supposed to inform readers have turned into traps using curiosity, hope or fear mongering to lure in readers. There have been many complaints and criticism from readers, but they continue to click them anyway to satisfy their curiosity.This is why this campaign is important because it aims to cut the demand rather than try to regulate the supply. I hope by simply not clicking the links and using the platforms of other media organizations that have abandoned such practices, they will also render them useless and "clickbait" will disappear. As for journalists, I hope they will take this message to heart and try to repair their credibility, as that is the only way to gain a sustainable readerbase rather than shortsighted profits.Ever since its foundation, Daily Sabah's website has never deliberately obscured a headline or misled readers in order to gain clicks. For that, I congratulate our web team.