The early morning has always been my favourite time in the newsroom. It is quiet. The desks are empty. And the police radio seems louder than it does during the regular part of the day. There are no meetings and it is one of the few times in the newsroom that even the telephones seem silent. Just me and the newspapers, a cup of tea, the wires and time to think and plan.

Starting this September, mornings in the Spec newsroom got a lot busier. To boost our coverage on the web and to bring you local news first, we increased our early morning staff to give our newsroom a faster start to the day and to bring you all the breaking news you need first thing in the morning on our website, thespec.com.

News editor Shaun Herron is first in around 6 a.m. along with John Burman, our early morning reporter. Both of them are up by 4:30 getting ready for work, checking for stories and scanning radio and TV for the latest news. A few weeks ago when the Skyway Bridge was closed just before morning rush hour, John was filing the story from home before he even got into work, letting readers at thespec.com know first.

Howard Elliott, one of our managing editors, is in by 7, working the wires, tracking news and making plans based on how we will think the day's events will unfold, both on the web and in paper. He is joined by reporters Emma Reilly and our two international interns Fariba Sahraei and Tazeen Rizvi. Everyone is looking to bring breaking news to our website.

We have been at this structure a few weeks now, and I love it. It reminds me of my early days at the Spec when a crew of reporters and editors worked from 5 a.m. til noon, updating editions of the newspaper with the latest news. It is exactly what we are doing now, only with the web. And the principles of those days -- get it right, get it quick and get it published -- still govern our activities.

I encourage you to check our website, not only first thing in the morning but also before you head home from work and a couple of times during the day. As soon as we get news, we post it. Our web readers were the first to hear of the deaths of Ron Lancaster and Ralph Sazio, as well as new developments on news in our city, across Canada and around the world.

Check out our daily poll question and watch local videos on the news and personalities.

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Still with the web, several area high school students were at the Spec last Monday night. They were here to find out about a new program that lets them write about their high school teams for the Spec website.

Armed with pizza and pop, Spectator sports editor Rick Hughes and sportswriter and columnist Scott Radley outlined the program for about 20 students. Our volunteer web correspondents will send us game reports from their schools, keep track of teams and send us pictures and video, all of which will be collected on a special web page. This is in addition to our regular high school sports coverage by sportswriter Tony Fitzgerald.

"I am really excited about the on-line program," says Hughes. "We have a long-standing commitment to high school sports at The Spectator and we are expanding that in an exciting way by tapping into the students' own enthusiasm for sports, journalism and their schools."

David Estok is the Spectator's editor-in-chief. editorfeedback@thespec.com