Was it Murdoch who ditched the six columns?

This morning, James Taranto defends the Wall Street Journal against Joe Nocera's charges that the paper uses "Democrat" as an adjective.  Whatever.  But as I have been thinking about why I don't find the Journal as compelling as it used to be, it occurs to me that I loved its old lay-out: a lead news story in the left column and a deep feature story on the right.  Both stories would inevitably be rich with useful detail, and I think they made a lot of breakfast-time readers smarter.

I am not sure whether the front page was blown-up during the Murdoch era, but if it was, he has yet something else to answer for.