n these relatively early days of the Web, most online magazines are either Net versions of existing print publications or relatively tame new entries. The first clue that Charged, a new online magazine about "extreme sports," breaks the mold comes in a story entitled "Running Ruined My Life." After reading text that describes how obsessive running destroyed a man's foot, readers may click to see video footage of his foot surgery."It's got a funny, gross-out factor," magazine founder Dan Koeppel says of the story. He has vowed to provide something extra-funny, extra-multimedia, or extra-gross for sports maniacs with a sense of humor, perverse or otherwise. "Obviously it has to be well done, or it's not funny," says Dan. "A Charged story is for people who are passionate about activities but aren't geeks about it. We're in it for fun."
Dan, who in 1984 created Blip, the first kids' video game magazine, had been shopping the Charged concept around for years, but he attracted only nibbles, not bites. Then Icon, a New York new-media company that produces the online magazine World, put Charged in business.
Multimedia is essential to covering intense sports, says Dan, who plans to bring live coverage of mountain-bike racing and a report from a snowboarding camp to his new website.
