Christopher Ma, a veteran journalist and innovative new-media pioneer who was senior vice president for development of The Washington Post Co., died of heart attack Nov. 23 at a hospital in New York City. He was 61.

Over the past 14 years, Mr. Ma played a pivotal role in taking The Post's family of products beyond those of a traditional newspaper. He pushed the company to launch Express, a daily tabloid designed for commuters that became profitable, and guided the purchase and business-side operations of El Tiempo Latino, a Spanish-language weekly that The Post acquired in 2004.

Mr. Ma spearheaded whorunsgov.com, an online resource with profiles of lawmakers, lobbyists, military leaders and other Washington figures. Other online projects he shepherded included a collaboration with OnGo.com, a news aggregation site.

Mr. Ma had worked as a correspondent at Newsweek and as an editor at U.S. News and World Report before he joined The Post Co. in 1997. He joined the corporate staff in 2000 as a vice president in the planning department and in 2008 became a senior vice president.

In 2003, The Washington Post launched Express with Mr. Ma as publisher. He was involved not only in business decisions, editor Daniel Caccavaro said, but also in shaping the identity of the new publication. Today, Express has a print run of more than 180,000 and brings several million dollars to The Post annually in profits.

Christopher Yi-Wen Ma was born March 20, 1950, in Columbus, Ohio. His parents immigrated to the United States from China.

He received a bachelor's degree in philosophy in 1972 from Harvard University, where he was editor of the literary journal, and a law degree in 1978 from the University of California at Berkeley. He practiced law for six months before beginning a career in journalism. (Source: Emily Langer, Washington Post, Nov 24, 2011).