Jupiter's Images division posted a 2% increase in gross sales over the same quarter in 06 to $26.8MM while the Online Media division grew by 4% to $7.9MM.  Highlights for the Images segment include a 30% growth in Rights Managed image licensing for the first nine months of 2007 over the same period in 2006 and a 300% growth in Jupiter Images Unlimited sales for the nine-month period. These highlight mask a sequential quarterly decline in Images revenue, however.  Operating margins for both the Images and Online Media segments declined in the third-quarter.

Other highlights from the conference call with analysts:

Meckler says that the company has conducted a rigorous review of its operating expenses and has found ways to reduce costs by $2MM to $3MM annually going forward.  He did not indicate, however, how the company will accomplish this.

RM, Subscriptions and Microstock revenue are growing, but RF revenue is declining. Meckler staed that the Jupiterimages Unlimited subscription is one of a kind that others may try to imitate, but to do so, one must be “willing to kill their single images RF business.  We’re willing to do that.”

A redesign of the company’s Online Media web-site including a single sign on registration system is now paying dividends. Traffic and new user registration are growing which will help drive revenue but not for several months.

MediaBistro’s job-board postings have been strong.  Ad-selling on the MediaBistro site will become a new source of revenue as the company has hired ad-sales reps for the site in both the UK and Germany.  This source of revenue has not previously been developed on MediaBistro.

Deferred Revenue from subscription image sales ahs grown from $11MM to $12.8MM year over year.  This deferred revenue will benefit actual revenue between the next quarter and two years out, with most of it coming within the next twelve months.  With the Subscription business becoming a key part of he company, Deferred Revenue now plays a more important role as an indicator of future growth.  Jupiter is seeing better subscription sales growth in overseas markets, especially France Germany, England and Australia.

Meckler acknowledges that the Subscription business requires wholly-owned material, which only makes the environment more difficult for photographers.

Since releasing their 3Q results on Thursday evening, Jupiter’s stock price has dropped from $4.60 per share to $3.84, as of this writing.

Web-site: Jupitermedia.com