ALL PHOTOS: Diego Graglia  

ews is not always new, especially when midnight strikes. The media cover events mostly during the day; at night, the flow of fresh information slows to a trickle. Staffs are heavily downsized for the overnight shift -- but someone has to be there in case something happens.

"It's just the five of us here, in the middle of the ocean," said Charlie White, 53, an assignment editor and a 20-year veteran in the graveyard shift at CBS News Radio. Besides White, a copy editor, a desk assistant, an anchor and a sound technician worked quietly. It was after midnight, and the newsroom was calm for a place usually buzzing with sounds and tension. No one ran, no one shouted.

Roger Norum, 60, the copy editor, and Jim Chenevey, 46, the anchor, discussed what story would lead the 1 a.m. broadcast, using a jargon cryptic to outsiders. They chose that day's Bush-Blair meeting in Washington. "Oh, that's an exciting story," Chenevey said, with sarcasm. By that time, the information seemed more like recent history than news.

Ironically, a slow news day translates into a busy night for these workers. For instance, White said, "In the holidays, you really have to reach out to find something. You actually work harder."

f course, from time to time, something really big happens. "We're here to take care of things if all hell breaks loose," White said. Princess Diana's death in Paris in 1997 and the student massacre at Tiananmen Square in Beijing in 1989 are examples of events that suddenly forced everyone to run and shout.

In those moments, "you forget to go to the bathroom," White said, "the adrenaline starts pumping and you just keep going." The Tiananmen coverage earned the station a DuPont Award. "On this shift," White said, "you're good or you're dead."

"On the weekends, I don't want to go out before 9 at night, and my friends don't want to stay until 7 in the morning. At 1 or 2 a.m., they are ready to go home. "I want to stay out but everybody else is tired. I'm just trying to convert my friends into night owls."

Rachel Cohen   24, Reuters reporter

Despite the slow pace, news people are pretty busy during the night, according to Rachel Cohen, 24, a financial reporter for Reuters who works from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.

"There is no nap-time, unfortunately," she said with a laugh. "When I have some breaks, I check my e-mail. I write e-mails in the middle of the night because I can't call my friends at 3 a.m."

eird things can happen in a lonely office at night.

Glen Weisman, a night desk editor for MJI Programming, an entertainment and news provider for radio stations, said that "mice come out to visit you." He also recalled when a pipe burst beneath the floor and he and a workmate had to place high-powered equipment on top of desks to avoid a catastrophe.

"Other than that," Weisman said, "it's not that weird. If you like solitude, it's great."

Days off can be a problem after a week of overnight work. "What I find difficult," Norum, the copy editor at CBS, said, "is trying to be a normal person again." After the weekend, he added, "you start turning into a vampire again."

Norum said, "My wife is an early riser, I'm not." Charlie White told him: "You do what I do. You wave goodbye to her as she gets out of bed and then you get into it."

Chenevey, the anchor, summed up the general feeling in the half-empty newsroom. "After a few years," he said, "there's no getting back to normal."