After losing some of its key business authors last year, the Random House Publishing Group has hired former Hyperion editor Ben Loehnen to replenish its rolls. The company is calling the move "a new business program." Spokesman Tom Perry said the books will be published as part of Little Random and Loehnen won't be bringing on any staff.

Loehnen, who has a financial background, will edit books "ranging from history and biography and memoir to practical works on management, personal finance, marketing and careers," the company said. His most recent book at Hyperion, where he worked for two years, was a political book about John Kerry's St. Paul's class of 1962. Some of Random's bigger business authors, like Ron Chernow and Ken Auletta, left for Ann Godoff's Penguin Press last year.