Magnetic tape media according to one embodiment includes a plurality of servo tracks having physical characteristics of being written by an apparatus that monitors a lateral position of the magnetic tape media passing over a servo writing head during a servo track writing operation and writes servo marks to the magnetic tape media. A timing of the writing of each servo mark is based on the monitored position of the magnetic tape media. Magnetic tape media according to another embodiment include a plurality of servo tracks having a plurality of consecutively-written servo marks, a distance between each consecutively-written servo mark in a tape travel direction varying in direct correlation with a distance of the respective mark, as written, from an edge of the magnetic tape media in a cross-track direction.