Jon-Michael Reed, Newspaper Soap Opera Columnist

Jon-Michael Reed who wrote a column about television soap operas for The Times and 200 other newspapers in the United States and Canada, is dead of the complications of hepatitis.

He was 38 and died at a New York City Hospital Friday, a spokesman for United Feature Syndicate, distributor of the column, said Wednesday.

Reed was believed the first to regularly chronicle the daily dramas that appeared on American TV screens and each week offered a plot summary of the leading soaps which The Times had published on weekends for the past several years.

He also occasionally interviewed soap opera stars.

A syndicate spokesman said Reed’s long-time colleague, Nancy M. Reichardt, who has been sharing the writing responsibilities with Reed during his illness, will continue writing the column under her name.