The Bloom Picayune was the name of the dominant newspaper in Bloom County. Formerly called the Bloom Beacon, it was renowned for its reporters' aggressive and sensationalistic reporting style, and they enjoyed maintaining an adversarial relationship with political figures.
The Picayune was run ostensibly by Milo Bloom (but we know that it was really W.A. Thornhump III who ran the show!) who was the Editor and leading reporter. Other employees included Opus The Penguin who was in charge of the personal ads, and occasionally did a Lifestyles piece. He also served for a brief period as the Picayune Ombudsman. That ended in tragedy when Opus tried to charm the ladies of the National Organization for Women and subsequently had his sizable honker rammed straight down his throat.
Another Picayune disaster occurred when Opus was assigned to the photography desk at the Picayune. Opus thought that he would be taking pictures of butterflies and children in the park, but was instead assigned to get pictures of Sean Penn who happened to be drunk and vomitting in a local back alley. Steve Dallas was drafted to be his assistant, but he got the shit end of the stick when he interfered and Penn broke his spinal column by repeatedly bashing it with his forehead.
Mostly, though, the Picayune endorsed and covered the presidential candidacy of Bill The Cat and his running mate Opus in 1984 and 1988. Needless to say, both of those elections ended in humiliating defeats for Bill and Opus, because Bill could not stay out of trouble - during his latter run for president, Bill had a heated affair with Jeanne Kirkpatrick which ended badly. Bill snapped and went on a violent rampage shooting up his neighborhood with an uzi.
Oddly, they did not cover The Great LaRouch Toad-Frog Massacree.
The Bloom Picayune closed its doors and turned off its presses in 1989, and the world of journalism let out a collective wail of anguish. It has just not been the same since.