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> are laid out in columns.

Because they can't be resized on the fly?

Because the optimal line length for readability on a monitor seems to be between 50-95 characters per line[1]. On my 1920x1080px screen, I'm seeing about 300 characters per line in this article.

[1] http://baymard.com/blog/line-length-readability and http://psychology.wichita.edu/surl/usabilitynews/72/LineLeng... - and no, the irony is not lost on me on the second link

On most platforms, it's relatively easy to resize your browser to whatever width suits you best.

Personally, I tend to find columns wider than the 95 character thing easier to quickly scan - I had this site set to about 130 chars. When someone fixes the width of the text on the website, there's no sensible option I have to widen it to my preference.

No, for readability. Paul Graham's essays are a good example. For example, http://paulgraham.com/copy.html

Right - I can resize my browser so that the web page is most readable to me, because it defaults to full width. I can't resize my newspaper or magazine, so they don't default to full width.

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