Carolyn Reidy, the president and chief executive officer of Simon & Schuster publishing company, died of a heart attack on Tuesday morning at age 71, the company said. Reidy joined Simon & Schuster in 1992 as the president of the trade division, and later became CEO in 2008. “Carolyn was both an exemplary leader and a supremely talented and visionary publishing executive,” wrote Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Dennis Eulau. “As a publisher and a leader, Carolyn pushed us to stretch to do just that little bit more; to do our best and then some for our authors, in whose service she came to work each day with an unbridled and infectious enthusiasm and great humor.” Before she came to Simon & Schuster, Reidy was the president and publisher of Avon after working at William Morrow and Random House.