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Originally Posted by gmw
I thought narrow newspaper columns started due to the practicalities of typesetting? (But it can be difficult to tell when you're getting reliable information or urban myth when just browsing the 'net.)
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A Google search for "why are newspapers printed in columns" returns lots of answers, all of which seem to say essentially the same thing. Here's a typical reply:
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The initial reason columns were used was because of deadlines and advertising. If your newspaper had only one column on its front page (or any age) then if some new story "broke" you'd have to redo the whole thing. Additionally journalists are taught to write using the inverted pyramid model - have the high-level summary as the first paragraph, have more specificity in the second, and so on. That way if a story needed to be trimmed (to fit another in, or place an ad) then the editor can "cut from the bottom" - and this is easier to do (and "reflow" a story) if you have a multi-column layout. Magazines used the same process and style, just with less frequent (or crushing) deadlines.
A reason why this column layout persists and is still used is it helps in readability. Less words on a line supports scalability and "breaks up" the black test with "random" gaps. Take an ebook reader like Stanza on the Mac and open a random book. Make the reader screen wide, using only one column (it helps if you have a larger monitor in this exercise). It almost hurts my eyes and is "harder" to comprehend than the same content would be if it was presented in a thinner column or multiple columns.
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https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-re...and-newspapers
So it seems it's a combination of practical considerations about making layout changes AND considerations of readability.