I have added the following at functions.php:
// featured image caption
function the_post_thumbnail_caption_desc() {
global $post;
$thumbnail_id = get_post_thumbnail_id($post->ID);
$thumbnail_image = get_posts(array('p' => $thumbnail_id, 'post_type' => 'attachment'));
if ($thumbnail_image && isset($thumbnail_image[0])) {
echo '<span class="tdb-caption-text">'.$thumbnail_image[0]->post_excerpt.'</span>';
}
}
Then at the plugin that is responsible for the styles, here is what I updated.
td-standard-pack/Newspaper/parts/single/single_template_7.php
<?php the_post_thumbnail_caption_desc(); ?>
(I added it to the other meta data.)
And for styling, I added the following to CSS:
.tdb-caption-text {
color: #ffff8f;
float: right !important;
}