Metal evaporated (ME) tape is being developed as an advanced medium for high-density magnetic tape recording. It is produced by evaporation in an oxygen atmosphere, and consists of very small Co and CoNi crystallites intermingled with oxides of Co and Ni. The angle of incidence of the vapor flux is varied continuously during deposition, imparting to the film a distinct curved columnar structure. Previous studies have measured the angular dependence of the coercivity and remanence out of the plane of the tape in order to determine the preferred direction of magnetic anisotropy and the mechanism of magnetization reversal in these films. These studies, however, do not take into account the demagnetizing field. In this study, we used a two-dimensional vector vibrating-sample magnetometer (VSM) to obtain the correct angular dependence of the coercivity and of the remanent magnetization. Our results show that magnetization reversal near the easy axis proceeds by incoherent rotation, and not by domain-wall displacement as suggested by other investigators. We also measured the torque characteristics in the three principal planes and used them to determine the magnitude and angle of the uniaxial magnetic anisotropy in these films. To understand the origin of the magnetic anisotropy, we studied the temperature dependence of Ms and Hc over the range of −100 to +100 °C. We found that Ms is essentially independent of temperature in this range, while Hc has a very large negative temperature coefficient (about 6 Oe/°C). This implies that it is primarily the crystalline anisotropy of the Co and CoNi crystallites which controls the coercivity of these films, and not the shape of the distinct columnar structure or any shape contribution of the crystallites themselves.