One thing I've noticed in my recent research is that my reading selection on site is significantly impacted by 3+ multicolumn design. Columns to the right of the first two are almost dismissed even if they are given the same -or larger- design 'weight' (width, boldness, pix, content) as the first two (example: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/). I've found that even though I'm aware that the site needs to be read fully left-to-right in order to get to all the content, I'm having to force myself to pay attention to the right side.
The exception to the above are sites that present content in 'gallery view' such as http://www.newser.com/ (select grid view).
Agreed. When I check out sites like TechMeme http://www.techmeme.com/ I cannot follow the right hand columns. Once I get down to the bottom of the page I neve scroll back up to read what I missed. I doubt we're alone with this.