Green’s Dictionary of Slang

chatter, gossip, scandal; thus attrib. and occas. as v. (see cites 1840, 1851).

1708		J. Hall Memoirs (1714) 30: Nay, I could mention too a L----d, / But, like his S----h, ’twould be Absurd / Besides Scan. Mag. that is the Word.
1779		Sheridan Critic I ii: The publisher [...] threatening himself with the pillory, or absolutely indicting himself for Scan. Mag.
c.1815		J.K. Paulding Bucktails (1847) I ii: Pray, was it on an action of debt, assault and battery, or Scan-mag?
1816		Eve. Mail (London) 6 Mar. 4/3: If the members of the club may not talk politics, we can assure a certain person that they sometimes deal in scan-mag.
1825		in T.E. Hook ‘Man of Many Friends’ Sayings and Doings 2nd Ser. II i 122: I can give you a daily abstract of fashionable scan-mag.
1836		A. Thornton Don Juan in London II 209: In the early part of the evening, the news, scan. mag., and small-talk [...] are detailed and discussed.
1840		Morn. Post (London) 27 Jan. 3/3: I would employ Sir james each day some new scan-mag to dish up.
1840		Bon-Ton Gaz. 15 Feb. 41/1: I saw Mrs Lloyd [...] scanmagging her neighbours, as usual, to everybody who is foolish enough to listen to her.
1847		Bell’s Life in Sydney 20 Feb. 2/4: She was enjoying a little ‘scan mag’ with a neighbour.
1851		Hereford Jrnl 3 Sept. 4/1: We ‘scan-mag,’ heard the chatter-pie talking.
1861		G.A. Sala Twice Round the Clock 130: The swarms of flies [...] inebriating themselves on saccharine suction in the grocers’ shops, and noisily buzzing their scanmag in private parlours.
1870		Exeter Flying Post 24 Aug. 8/2: There is quite a dearth of ‘chitchat’, and ‘scan-mag’ is at a premium.
1882		G.A. Sala in Living London (1883) May 196: The impression of which I speak has been for many years [...] of use to me, especially in compiling these Echoes, which may occasionally appear desperately dull because they do not contain a sufficiency of ‘scan-mag’.
1885		Rock Is. Argus (IL) 3 Aug. n.p.: She [i.e. the local town] does not propose to be left out in the cold in the matter of a little scan mag.
1901		Eve. Times-Republican (Manhattan IA) 30 Nov. 5/4: One can guarantee the same comment on the next case of scan-mag.
1913		Fergus Co. Democrat (Lewistown, MT) 28 Oct. 4/6: Every scan-mag disclosure was magnified into a case of ‘white slavery’.
1914		E. Wittmann ‘Clipped Words’ in DN IV:ii 143: scanmag, short and derisive for scandalum magnatum. Scandalous jabber, pettifogging, slander, talk.