Jupitermedia Posts Loss For Q2

Jupitermedia, owner Jupiterimages, which we used to consider the third-largest stock photo agency, posted a loss of $3.2 million last quarter. Revenues showed very slight growth over last year. In stock photo revenue, the company's imagery business has gotten smaller over the last year. The company is stalled in a stagnant stock imagery market and a bad economy. Its stock price has been hovering below $2 for the last two months or so. You can see the company's financial statement here.

In an earnings call this afternoon, Jupiter CEO Alan Meckler said stock photo royalty-free subscriptions are still doing well, and the company plans to launch two new subscription plans this month. One of them will bundle the company's low-price royalty-free subscription site Photos.com with its microstock site StockXpert.

President and COO Christopher Cardell also revealed that the company recently repriced its employee stock options because many previously issued options were "well underwater. This was something that we've been discussing for a while from an impact of employee relations and morale, and most importantly retention." This is costing the company a lot of money -- $2.4 million in the quarter, more than two-and-a-half times what the company spent on stock-based compensation in the same quarter last year.

The company now has 705 employees, Meckler said. That's almost exactly the same number it had at the end of 2007.