Often readers attached notes of appreciation with their subscription checks. Others offered suggestions for improvement.

We listened and made improvements, including dramatically expanded sports coverage and more coverage of the arts and antiques. As a community paper, Main Line Life began to look more like a cross between an urban daily and a magazine: it featured wall-to-wall color, vivid graphics, lively (and thoughtful) local news coverage, along with provocative opinion pieces.

Six months into the launch of Main Line Life, executive editor Fred Behringer raised the bar. I want Main Line Life to be the best community newspaper in America, said Behringer, a man not given to lofty pronouncements.

In the succeeding months, Main Line Life continued to grow more robust and even more colorful. Talented staffers from other area newspapers joined en masse, and our subscribership grew until early this summer it topped a watershed mark of 10,000 paid weekly circulation - an accomplishment unheard of in an industry generally retreating from the onslaught of electronic media.

Then, Main Line Life received the news that we all thought would not come for years.

An independent group of editors and newspaper professional voted Main Line Life the best suburban newspaper in North America. The award was presented in San Francisco at the annual meeting of Suburban Newspapers of America, a publishers association representing 2,000 newspapers across the nation and Canada.

Fred Behringer’s dream of producing the best community newspaper in America was realized quicker than anyone had guessed possible.

Credit for this accomplishment, of course, goes largely to the remarkable team or writers, editors, photographers, designers, advertising representatives and circulation specialists who poured their souls into Main Line Life from the very beginning. Most left secure positions at other publications to come to Main Line Life. Reason: they felt as a team that they could provide the community with a newspaper that is measurably superior.

The visionaries who led the way included the elegant Nancy Gould, social and society editor, talented wordsmith Marianne Schmidt, the first editor; and Harriet Gratz, our marketing director, whose energy seems to grow with each issue. David Burket brings a sophisticated graphics touch to the newspaper, and the present editor, Warren Patton, continues to strengthen the content.

Today the Main Line Life staff is the newspaper equivalent of basketball’s dream team. You recognize this the moment you enter the Ardmore offices. Amid ringing phones, there is a constant exchange of ideas and plans for the upcoming issues. Story suggestions are pasted to the wall. Ad layouts are scattered on desktops. The energy and enthusiasm is palpable.

As good as the paper has become, Main Line Life is in a large sense a reflection of the fabled, historic community that it serves. It expects the newspaper, I think, to meet personal high standards of excellence. And when it does, readers are quick to recognize the effort.

In the past week, since announcing the general excellence award, phone calls and letters have poured into the paper. Said the husband of one our editors: Everywhere we go, people go out of their way to tell us how much they enjoy the paper.