Simplicity is best?

I like to read the newspaper. A real newspaper, printed on big sheets of gray paper. I like the traditional form because it contains lots of information but the colors are muted, advertisements don't jump in front of the text I am reading, it is easy to navigate, and the layout is always consistent. Sort of the same approach suggested in the reading for designing a website. Simplicity works best for me as a user; obnoxious flashing advertisements and animation flying across the page make me so frustrated. I do like sites with some color, great pictures and content with depth but I prefer defaulting on the side of simplicity rather than clutter. Fortunately my design skills prevent all the flashy animated stuff, but the reading did point out some simple layout ideas that I can implement to make my next site a little less amateur looking. --Alex