• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, November 6, 2008

Martha’s Circle will likely remain a small circle of friends. At least that’s the strategy Christine Cook, SVP Digital Sales, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, laid out for the Martha Stewart version of vertical ad networks.

“Donsumers go to brands they trust for whatever reason, and expect them to edit the Web,” Cook said of the logic behind extending Martha’s brand to some vertical blog extensions of Martha Stewart’s lifestyle sensibilities. But to do that right, Cook said, the goal is to keep the network small and focused.

“There’s not a lot of editing if it’s too big,” she said, adding, “We don’t own many of the sites that are in Martha’s Circle, and we don’t necessarily think that we have to.”

Cook