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In recent years, content publishers and brands have added chief content officers, content data analysts, content writers, and content editors to their staffs. In fact, the "content" team keeps getting bigger and bigger. The reason is simple. The demand for online content isn't going to shrink anytime soon, but the competition for audience eyeballs (and ears) will keep growing.To stay relevant, content publishers are digging deeper into data and creating more creative, interesting, and shareable content. They're also finding ways to merge content and data in innovative ways and to turn text content into visually-appealing (and highly shareable) content.Enter the data visualization editor role.Media organizations, consumer products companies, and services companies are actively searching for people to fill the position of data visualization editor. For example, this week, NBC Universal, Reuters, and Dow Jones have all published job postings for data visualization editor roles. Although the job title might change slightly from one company to another, the responsibilities of the position stay nearly the same.This person leads the effort to transform each day's key stories into visual content, which can include infographics, data visualizations, interactive content, and more. The data visualization editor is tasked with harnessing emerging platforms, new tools, and partnerships to develop creative visual content that tells stories based on available data.The data visualization editor is not just a graphic designer, nor is this person just a writer. This person is strategic and understands the role that visual storytelling plays in social media and word-of-mouth marketing. The data visualization editor knows how to integrate visuals into every story but also knows how to identify the best uses of visuals. This person understands how to apply metrics to improve visual storytelling but is also capable of diving into graphic design and publishing tools to ensure the best content is always published in a timely manner.In other words, this person is part journalist, part designer, part analyst, part storyteller, part editor, part writer, part coder, and part marketer. It's a tough job and requires a person with a passion for storytelling and a relentless drive to get the story to the audience in the best visual manner possible. Suffice it to say, the data visualization editor must be highly motivated with both a creative and analytical mind. That's a tall order!Is your content team appropriately staffed with the right experience, skills, talent, and innovative thinking to be competitive in the future? Consider adding a data visualization editor to your team before your competitors do so you can stake your claim in the data visualization storytelling space today.Image: Jan Kratna