"I have terrible news," he paused. "Jonathan is dead."
Hi Sherry! Here's my thinking: "he paused" isn't a long enough moment to actually create a pause for the reader. You're suggesting above that the mention of a pause creates tension; I'm thinking the experience of a pause creates tension.
An alternative - "I have terrible news," he said, gazing down at her shoes for so long she wanted to shake the words out of him or kick him for hoarding them. "Jonathan is dead," he said finally, and then she wanted to shove the words back into him.
In my example, the reader experiences the pause, as well as the character's internal reaction to it. In yours, the reader is told that there is a pause, in words that last the same length as "he said."
Neither option is the right one universally. I think it depends on the story. If you're writing a bare-bones story, "he paused" might be perfect. The author might not want us inside the character's head during that pause. And? Not giving us the character's response to the pause is the sort of unsaid that might amplify the silence.
But telling us how the listener FEELS during that pause might be exactly right for the story. For example, the tension in the scene might already be stretched taut, with the character at her limit, when that pause happens. And that pause is just long enough to drive her over the edge, and us with her, especially if we experience it alongside her. Also, of we experience the pause, we experience the tension of waiting for what comes next. We don't merely by being told there's a pause.
... what does the writer do to more a story forward?... I mean the little things to get a reader to move from one paragraph to the next and to turn a page. Is it a certain word you add that creates questions (or bubbles of tension) that the reader wants answered?
Honestly, I think a reader moves from one paragraph to the next because the story is good. The tension slowly rises, the stakes are real, the characters are honestly depicted. We know it's heading somewhere and we want to know where.
Beyond that though, at the micro-level? I'm not quite sure how to answer this, so possibly I am missing experience vital to the question. I would say you touch on it above, with your suggestion of "pause" rather than "said." Word choice is a vital component of voice, tone, tempo! Does it make a reader read on? No idea? But I can't imagine the last moment of The Great Gatsby written any other way, and I remember that novel for its last moment. So possibly the words are the most important part of a novel. The style, the strategy of it all. Does a wordy novel push you to read on?
I've noticed I can cut paragraphs of exposition and achieve a MUCH stronger effect by saying in a line or two what it took me pages to say. A concise delivery can create a sense of suddenness. Then there are times when the long, sprawling effect is exactly what the scene needs. A bit of exposition placed just right can offer a sense of time passing and a drawn-in breath -- the "pause" of above. Maybe I want the reader to sit back and relax before I rip the rug out. Choose the wrong word by accident and you lose control of the scene; choose the wrong one purposefully and you could strike just the right chord of dissonance, adding an undercurrent of irony to an otherwise straightforward scene. And then there's the unsaid: if you don't say something explicitly, it can scream implicitly.
I have no idea if that answers your question! 
