Major news outlets have turned gaming social sites into a huge business - years ago it was revealed HuffPo A/B tested their headlines based on how much traffic they pull. These days I suspect that's entirely standard but even if the tech rags are still lagging behind you can see them desperately pandering for pageviews pretty transparently - like Ars syndicating StackOverflow, or the sheer volume of viral-hit-or-miss garbage that AOL's giant content farm spews out across their network (eg 39 x iPhone 5c/s articles between just TechCrunch and Engadget since being announced!).
Business Insider uses Optimizely to optimize the stream of pure shit they emit.