A magnetic head for writing information on a relatively-moving medium is disclosed, the head having a leading end, a trailing end and a medium-facing surface, the head comprising: a soft magnetic write pole that terminates in a pole tip that is disposed adjacent to the medium-facing surface; at least one coil section that is disposed adjacent to the write pole to induce a magnetic flux in the write pole; and a hard magnetic bias structure disposed within one micron of the pole tip to magnetically bias the pole tip.