Basic layout question involving screen width

[Frank A.]

I notice that a lot of blogs are using a very narrow screen width, so,
when you use a typical modern, widescreen monitor, you're using only about
40% of the page width. The rest is blank. This seems like a poor design
choice. A proper design would use the entire width and adjust itself for
the user's screen dimensions. Many websites accomplish this. I was
wondering why blogs tend to ignore this logic. Is it because they are
trying to imitate the narrow columns of newspapers?
And is there a simple way of having your website adjust to the screen
width of the reader?

 

[Spike]

Frank

Not using publisher. Publisher produces fixed width pages

Spike

 

[Em]

I notice that a lot of blogs are using a very narrow screen width, so,
when you use a typical modern, widescreen monitor, you're using only about
40% of the page width. The rest is blank. This seems like a poor design
choice. A proper design would use the entire width and adjust itself for
the user's screen dimensions. Many websites accomplish this. I was
wondering why blogs tend to ignore this logic. Is it because they are
trying to imitate the narrow columns of newspapers?
And is there a simple way of having your website adjust to the screen
width of the reader?
.