WASHINGTON (AP) — Christopher Ma, a new-media pioneer who pushed The Washington Post Co. to launch the free daily Express tabloid, has died. He was 61.

Ma’s wife, Nathalie Gilfoyle, tells The Washington Post that Ma had a heart attack and died Wednesday in New York City.

Ma was a veteran journalist who worked as a Washington correspondent for Newsweek magazine and was an editor at U.S. News and World Report. He joined the Post in 1997 as a vice president overseeing its online subsidiary.

Ma is credited with expanding the Post’s products beyond the traditional newspaper over the past 14 years. He launched the profitable Express tabloid in 2003, which now has a print run of more than 180,000. Ma guided the purchase of the Spanish-language El Tiempo Latino in 2004.
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