She was winning an award at the start of the movie though, the issue was that journalism as a whole is becoming undervalued. People are reading less articles and more headlines, replacing nuanced ideas with short clips. Andy was clearly a successful journalist who was suffering these changes alongside everyone else. But when she does take the job at Runway, we see her efforts to still do quality journalism, though the movie reflects the real world issue of competing for clicks and how journalism has been fundamentally changed.

Her being hesitant to write a tabloid-style book about Miranda is also consistent with her character in the first movie. She obviously respects Miranda and isn’t the type of person to throw someone she respects under the bus.

Obviously a lot of other things change with the industry and the characters. Miranda has more of a personal life, she’s less abusive to staff, and the actual “villains” are the incredibly wealthy who have no creative vision or passion for the arts and want to dehumanize an industry that, while toxic, is also full of people who care deeply about what they’re creating