I'm sure there's something going back to newspapers on this (though they would of course, fill multiple columns), but I can't help but suspect a lot of these UX studies are just predetermined to justify things like extra space on the margins for ads, "related content" distractions, and such things.
I've definitely never seen a newspaper that left over half of the page blank.
I didn't say it so clearly but that's what I meant when I said they fill multiple columns. The columns themselves are narrow but there are many of them. I wouldn't mind the narrow widths as much, although this site is excessive, if there was a multi-column layout that filled the window. A lot of the annoyance is needing to scroll.
Personally, I always found those newspaper columns hard to read, you constantly have to jump back and forth and they break them into so many pieces you have to actively search along the page to see where the damn thing continues.