Once upon a time, digital media was the lowest-cost real estate media. While printing and advertising could account for 80-95% of your budget, with a yearly fee paid for a site domain and a host, you could have as much content as you want, published in real time. Most importantly, there was no need to count the characters, or even calculate how many printouts you would need until the next revision or update. 

Not that this content was being read, but it was there, at no additional cost - 5 or 500 pages would be the same cost. So, stakeholders would own the narrative, they would say whatever they wanted and however they wanted. Users, however, that opted to use digital channels, would have to go on a hunting expedition to find the information they were looking for. 
At that time websites would have pages and pages about the company history. And, all that information would be useless to someone who had lost their credit card and was trying to request a replacement one or even report a stolen card. 

Fast-forward to today, in the midst of the digital era, where users are connected at all times by at least one device with access to countless resources at their fingertips. This new scenario not only puts them on the driver’s seat but also reduces their attention span considerably. Now they have a lot more options to get what they want when they want. 
Users are now accustomed to another content quality level - bite-sized, digestible, at the right place and the right time. If you are not providing that, they can get it somewhere else in a fraction of a second.

With the importance content has taken in the digital field, the responsibilities around content writing have doubled, creating a need for another specialty. Meaningful and well-written content, despite being crucial, does not guarantee efficiency. To be effective, the content needs to be consumed, which requires strategic framing and foundation - "the right content, at the right time, in the right place to the right audience."

Content Writers are now required to do a lot more than creating content, which is their specialty. Now they became Content Strategists and are also responsible for all the work surrounding the content creation, including planning and managing the production and consumption of each piece. To build a solid foundation of contextual content, optimized for performance that meets the business goals, content strategists have to perform several tasks not related to content writing per se, such as content inventory and audit, competitor research, information architecture, user journey flow development, etc..

Content Strategists have been busy these days, converting what once was the repository of all content - too expensive to have published or advertised - into meaningful and useful content for users to interact and hopefully educate prospects into becoming quality leads.
And that is the reason this job has grown to become a must-have to any company that is trying to have their message not only delivered but understood by the audience, creating a positive impact within their target market. In other words, triggering user interaction, generating leads and bringing business!