Our night owl, Dave Dondoneau, just passed his one-year anniversary on the overnight shift. So far, Dondoneau has posted nearly 4,000 stories and produced close to 50 videos.

When we created the 24/7 newsroom, we knew the overnight shift (11:30 p.m. to 7 a.m.) wouldn't be all that popular, but Dondoneau (and David Waite, who also handles nighttime duties) have made the most of the opportunities for breaking news around the clock.

Dondoneau is busy from the moment he gets into the office, when most everyone else is long gone. He stations himself near the scanner that broadcasts emergency calls and runs through his routine. He checks to see what is in the next day's newspaper, looks at our Web site to see what has been posted throughout the day and the previous day, and scans the wire services for national, international, Hawai'i, entertainment and sports news.

But he has a laundry list of other sites that have to be monitored, including those devoted to weather, surf, health news, Census information, government, agriculture, taxation, the judiciary, education and, of course, law enforcement. He also has bookmarked the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center for frequent visits. Dondoneau searches for familiar names such as local athletes, politicians or Hawai'i military personnel. He scours listings for local events that might be helpful to our online audience.

Our Web site that features our stories for the next day's edition are available by about 12:30 a.m. but by 1:30, Dondoneau usually has six to 10 fresh posts and then the scanner calls keep him hopping until about 3 a.m. If things are quiet, Dondoneau writes his fantasy football blog. But all bets are off if he has to rush out to shoot video.

One of his recent videos, a single-car accident on Halloween night, drew 4,686 video streams. Another recent video on "Lost" star Daniel Dae Kim being arrested on drunk-driving charges garnered nearly 5,700 video streams and was used by a local television station. In fact, local TV stations are very gracious when dealing with Dondoneau, even helping him when they can.

By 4:30 a.m., Dondoneau is watching the morning traffic for any major snarls and then catching the 5 a.m. news shows.

One of his busiest nights occurred Oct. 9 when he had to shoot video after a murder-suicide that started with a stabbing in Kalihi and ended with a car crash in Salt Lake.

That night, Dondoneau was following up on a machete attack in 'Ewa Beach. He was waiting for some details from the police at about 1:15 a.m. and getting ready to go over to the police station when he heard about the murder over the scanner at about 2 a.m. He was also monitoring the all-points bulletin issued about the person suspected in the machete attack but then heard that a truck crashed into a wall on Salt Lake Boulevard.

He drove to the crash scene with his video equipment and got footage of the deceased driver in the truck. Then he double-backed to the murder scene in Kalihi. A helpful sergeant filled in some of the details. As he headed back to the office, he continued to monitor information from his portable scanner and raced to get news up on the murder-suicide by 4:20 a.m. so he could scoop the 5 a.m. morning shows. He had seven minutes of video to edit and quickly posted that by 5 a.m.

From then on, he was back to writing the other news of the early morning, including a weather post and a Wall Street report. The sun was rising and Dondoneau had 15 posts, including the murder-suicide and the video.

Dondoneau and Waite still have trouble figuring out when to sleep after a shift. Do they get home and go to sleep or stay up all day and get their sleep in the hours before coming to work? They still haven't quite figured it out. For instance, Dondoneau said once a week he sleeps the entire time he ends one shift and begins the next.

And they rarely get a byline in the morning Advertiser, with all their posts throughout the night.

"The toughest part about this shift is developing sources simply because of the time frame," Dondoneau said. "The media reps for HPD, HFD and EMS are there for emergencies only. Realistically, this is a write-what-you-see-and-hear shift. It's rare for a story posted at 3 a.m. to make it all the way to the following day's newspaper without the help from a dayside reporter who can add more detail or background, so I appreciate the help of the day shift with the updates."

Dondoneau and Waite and the others who work the "dark side of Honolulu," as Dondoneau calls it, keep our readers informed in those hours when most of us are asleep but the city is still awake.