While at Economist Towers last week, wishing a fond farewell to retiring production director Sharon Simpson, I was struck by a comment made by her boss Alan Dunachie.

He's the Economist Group's director of operations and has held various senior roles in the business. Seven years ago production became part of his remit.

Dunachie said that prior to that date he didn't think about production at all: "I didn't need to think about it. Every Friday the Economist landed on my desk."

Subsequently he became acutely aware of the inherent challenges in, as he put it "moving wet tissue paper through complex machinery at 70mph".

But his comment reveals something of a dichotomy for senior production people. Just imagine working with a production director who was a complete flake, running around with their hands in the air like Corporal Jones at every new problem, spreading anxiety throughout the organisation.

Yet, be absolutely brilliant at your job and make it all happen seamlessly, and next thing you know someone's deciding that this stuff must be a breeze, and your role is surplus to requirements.

Sharon has retired, but won't be directly replaced and her role will be devolved to other senior members of the production team. Perhaps this isn't surprising given comments from Economist chief exec Andrew Rashbass, who said: "Print sales are holding up but I expect them to go backwards" in this Guardian interview at the end of last year.

However, I can think of so many recent examples of high-value print-related projects at various media groups - Immediate Media, the Telegraph, IPC Media, Redwood and indeed my own employer spring immediately to mind - that I would urge careful evaluation of the value gained from having expert personnel in this area.

Many of them really are worth their weight in gold.