Mexican investor plugs into NYC Media ...

MEXICAN billionaire Carlos Slim is wheeling and dealing his way through the media world.

According to people familiar with the matter, Slim is sinking more money into The New York Times Co., doubling his current 7 percent stake, while also visiting the offices of Newsweek, the Washington Post-owned newsweekly that was put up for sale earlier this week.

The expanded investment in the Times makes Slim its largest independent shareholder, after the previous biggest shareholder, Phil Falcone's hedge fund Harbinger Capital, sold 4.75 million shares last month.

SLIM STAKE: According to people familiar with the matter, Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim is sinking more money into The New York Times Co., doubling his current 7 percent stake.

Slim already has deep ties to the Times as a result of his $250 million, high-interest loan to the company in January 2009 and the warrants he holds that enable him to buy up to 18 percent of the company's common stock.

The Times declined to comment. Slim did not respond to a request for comment.

At the same time that he's getting in deeper with the Times, sources said Slim also met with Newsweek executives on Wednesday.

Slim's visit adds to the intrigue surrounding a comment made earlier this week by Newsweek Editor Jon Meacham, who said that once word began to circulate that the magazine he runs was for sale, he received phone calls from two billionaires interested in buying the title.

According to people familiar with the matter, Slim was not one of those billionaires.

Slim's apparent interest in Newsweek would represent a reversal of fortune for a magazine that some watchers predicted would be difficult to sell.

The title has struggled, losing $28.1 million last year, after slashing by more than 1 million the number of copies it promises advertisers it will sell, known as the rate base.

Compounding matters has been a redesign that moved the magazine away from covering breaking news to mimic The Economist in style, but failed to connect with readers.

The Washington Post said it would not comment on the sale until the process was complete.