The Wall Street Journal reports that The New York Times Co is looking towards the Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helu for pulling it out of the dire straits it is in - $46 million in cash against $1.1-billion debt in September end, and a $400-million credit facility that expires in May!

Talks are reportedly on between the newspaper publisher and the Forbes' second-richest man in the world, who owns Mexico's telephone giant Telmex. If the move comes through, it would infuse critical cash for the newspaper publisher to meet its debt payments, as it grapples with the falling advertising revenues.

Slim already has a 6.4 percent stake in the Times - the stake, worth nearly $128 million in September 2008, has shrunk to nearly $58 million in value. In case of a deal, Slim would likely be given preferred stock with no voting rights, but with a yearly dividend, by the paper.

The 68-year-old Slim has been placing heavy bets on hard-hit companies. Last year, he became the biggest investor in US luxury retailer Saks Inc by increasing his stake to 18 percent. In addition, his Inbursa brokerage in Mexico purchased roughly $150 million worth of Citigroup shares, which sank to their lowest since 1992.

More importantly, Slim's cash infusion would also be a `vote of confidence' in the Ochs-Sulzberger family, which has been controlling the Times for more than a century, despite the ever-so-shaky grounds of newspaper business in the US!