[1] First abbreviated from Student, College, and Administrative News, SCAN began in June 1967 as a one-page newsletter printed 500 times on carbon copy paper by the staff at Lancaster, one month before the university's first graduation ceremony.

The founding edition was a folio-sized transcript of the latest decisions made by the Student Representative Council (SRC), produced at a grand cost of £6.5s.3d.

[2]:101 In 1973, shortly after gaining enough money to open its first sabbatical position, the SRC began designating editors for the growing publication.

Though the paper charged up to £400 to design and display a single advert, the union was forced to request a 20% increase in its share of university revenue in 1979 to continue printing.

In 2008, editor Dan Hogan relaunched the paper as Student Comment and News, maintaining the original acronym while strengthening its brand culture.

In 2010 the paper joined the Lancaster University 'joint student media initiative' sharing its membership, facilities, and coverage more closely with LA1:TV and Bailrigg FM, and editor Lizzie Houghton introduced arts & lifestyle section Carolynne as "SCAN's stylish, more lighthearted sister".

It overlapped with historical titles like Carolynne and John O'Gauntlet, which provided far more comical, scandalous, and pointed coverage of student life at Lancaster but disappeared in 1971 and 1972 respectively.

[2]:87-107 In 1993 a short-lived parody of the paper, Self-Centred Arrogant Nonsense, was circulated around campus, and in 2012 a more elaborate imitation, SCAM: Student Comment and Moos, was "stealth-distributed" on the printers in the university library and online at scam.lusers.co.uk.

More serious rivals in 2012 included The Whistleblower, which claimed to be "Lancaster University's Only Independent Student Newspaper", and Fritz, a high-tech magazine run by members of the Management School.

[9][10] SCAN has also interviewed MPs, cabinet ministers, NUS presidents, and such diverse names as Owen Jones, Ian Hislop, James May,[11] Simon Bird, Rolf Harris, and the Kaiser Chiefs.

In order to contribute regularly to the paper, a person must become a member of SCAN by paying £3 to the joint student media initiative.