Are web sites designed with anchors (instead of individual pages), trending because of 960 grids? or is there a different concept at play?

I quite like the minimalism that a 'long page' design provides for a landing page. By keeping everything simple and providing more focus on a core product. I just haven't been able to find many examples of how to replicate it in a nice manner. The kind of sites I'm referring too, that have implemented this "design philosophy" would be something like lifehacker and sleepio.

Are these designs specific to suff like 960 grid layouts from stuff like skeleton, gumby or is there an underlying concept to designing in this 'pattern'?