Improvements to The NCAA News online advertising service are slated to become effective this spring.

Since its inception five years ago, The NCAA Online Market has displayed advertisements in a bulletin-board format. Users were limited to viewing advertisements by category or by region. However, planned enhancements will not only change the look of the site, but also provide job seekers and advertisers with a few more bells and whistles.

For job seekers, the improvements are significant and include e-mail notification, which will be offered free of charge. Also, an advanced search function will allow users not only to search postings by category and region, but also by level of position -- head coach or assistant -- and by gender.

"We're excited about the possibility of increasing traffic to the site, especially through the e-mail notification function. The advanced search also is a great new feature," said David Pickle, director of communications and editor-in-chief of The NCAA News. "Our online advertising service has been popular with the membership, and we're glad to improve on something that already works well and is well-received."

Advertisers will gain the ability to submit advertisements for the printed edition of The NCAA News via the Internet. Currently, advertisers either fax or e-mail ads to the newspaper, while online ads are placed by advertisers through the Web site.

The other noticeable change will involve the reorganization of the front page of the Web site to offer a menu of choices, including links to advertising policies and rates, posting online ads, submitting print ads and searching posted ads.

"With all the new additions, we wanted to ensure that it's still very easy to maneuver through The Market," Pickle said.

A promotion celebrating the new enhancements, scheduled to begin once the changes are operational, will include discounting online ad postings to 40 cents per word for a period of time.

To view The NCAA Online Market, go to www.ncaa.org.